A Darker Shade of Night
by Omega Devin
Summary: It’s been nearly six months since the defeat of Ultimecia, and the gang is ready to settle down and go on with their lives when a new terrifying and truly more evil enemy raises its ugly head...But how do you fight an enemy that can't be seen?
1. The Feel of Nothing

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Author's Note: I in no way, shape or form own Final Fantasy *snaps fingers in frustration*. 

Nothing special here, not as of yet, anyway. This is my first-ever Final Fantasy fic, so don't feel afraid to give me suggestions here and there. Just don't flame the hell out of me, okay? My feelings get hurt easily.

Other than that…um… The high rating is mostly for violence and strong language. This story is also going to get really dark as it progresses, so this is your warning. Don't let the light nature at the beginning through you off.

The pairings in this story are as followed: Squall/Rinoa, Irvine/Selphie, Seifer/Quistis and Zell/Library Girl (Tashla).

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Shade

Chapter One:

The Feel of Nothing

"I just don't understand it." Dr. Kadowaki said in frustration, holding her chin, looking thoroughly puzzled. "This is the thirteenth case this week, and it's not even Wednesday yet."

"Really doctor, I'm fine!" The junior cadet complained, sitting up on the hospital bed, giving the Garden doctor an unnecessary dark look. "I'm not here by choice! Instructor Trepe sent me here after I…"

"…fell asleep in class and smacked your head on your control panel as you did so?" She finished, one eyebrow quirked. "Students just don't fall asleep like that in class, especially not in the middle of the afternoon, and I seriously doubt that you are narcoleptic, so don't even bother with that excuse. Besides, I'm sure even you've seen better days, Mr. Zenda." 

Squall had to admit to himself, the kid could have been in better shape. Dark circles had underlined his eyes and his skin was unnaturally pale and a little moist, his finer hair matted down, and his cheeks held the unmistakable flush of a fever. The welt on his forehead did not add much to his current situation either. Under most circumstances, the doctor would have never asked Squall to come to the infirmary on the account of a small flu outbreak, but for some reason, she was particularly worried and felt it was urgent to speak with him on the matter.

"So I caught a bug. It's nothing unusual, even if it is the summer. This stuff happens all the time."

"It's not the bug I'm worried about." The doctor said, but Squall knew that it was said more to him than to the student. She crossed her office and opened her medicine cabinet, which was looking unusually empty. Withdrawing a small bottle from it, she returned to the bed and handed it to the student, who gave the bottle a very sour look. "Take one of these three times a day, morning, noon, and night. Come back to see me if you have any more of these fainting spells." A pause. "Better yet, I'd better tell your instructors that. If not, the next time you'll be in here with your head split open. Now go back to your dorm and rest. If not, I'll have Fuujin and Raijin take you back for you."

Mumbling under his breath, the kid jumped down from the hospital bed – perhaps a bit more clumsily for someone training to become a SeeD – and left the infirmary. 

Although he could not place his finger on it, Squall felt an itch on the inside of his skin that told him that something was not right about that whole situation. He had never seen anyone fight so hard against someone telling them to stay out of class and rest for a few days. Most kids would have danced if that were an order given to them. 

"Is this what you're so worried about?" Squall inquired when the cadet was out of hearing range. "A few juniors who resist the order to take a sick day? You didn't need me in here to give the order for you, do you?"

"You would actually be surprised at how many people actually _do_ fight it, Commander." Dr. Kadowaki said, returning to her desk and sitting down with a sigh. She was more serious than usual today, and she herself looked as if she had not been getting enough sleep at night. "There are some very dedicated students here whose studies are everything. The thought of anything setting them back puts them into utter turmoil. Why, I remember a couple years back when a certain young man refused to watch his back because he did not want his pride ruined by a certain rival, even if it meant getting his head sliced open in the process." She gave him a knowing smile when she said that; Squall almost smirked. The smile was short-loved, however, and the grave expression returned in a rush. "No…it is not so much the sickness I am worried about. I'm not concerned about the behavior of the students."

Squall frowned. "Behavior?"

"Yes." The Garden doctor leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on the desk and her chin on her hands. "Of course, the ones who have been becoming ill would never admit to such symptoms, so I've had a few of the teachers keep an eye on them for me. They say it's all the same. They seem to be sleeping and eating a lot less, so they appear gaunter than usual. Besides that, they say that their overall personalities take a complete one-eighty. The usually happy, upbeat students become quiet and reserved, and the ones who usually keep to themselves look as if they would rather be in the dark corner of some basement somewhere. Tempers and patience run short, so when they actually do talk, they're usually nasty when they do it. They loose interest in what they enjoy doing and don't even put in half the effort into the things that are mandatory. Written test scores are at an all-time low, and so is the energy and passion that the most dedicated students put into their studies. It's almost as if they've all…stopped caring. Young Mr. Zenda who was in here a moment ago was one of the minimal cases. If he were one of the worse I had heard about, he would not have said a word. And if he had, I can bet you your gunblade that it would have been a lot worse than what you heard. And nothing I give them seems to be helping once they are in here with the flu. I gave Mr. Zenda some basic flu medicine, but it won't de a thing for him. Nothing will." The doctor paused, and Squall thought for a split second that that would be the end, but he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach when the look on the doctor's face became even more severe.

"But that's not all of it."

Dr. Kadowaki shook her graying head. "No. The strangest symptom is the one I find the most unsettling. Some of the reports that I have been getting are from the instructors who oversee activity in the training center. There apparently has not been a short supply of monsters there – Hyne knows there never will be – but they are showing themselves a lot less than normal. In the past three weeks I've hardly received any patients who needed to be treated for wounds inflicted by the monsters, and they were usually my most frequent visitors. I've never been in there myself, but I can guess that those beasts don't miss a chance to attack anything that moves. However…from what I have been hearing, they have not only been not attacking, but it's almost like they're hiding, but only from certain juniors. And all the juniors that they avoid are the ones that eventually end up here with that flu."

Squall felt his stomach do a funny sort of summersault. Although his face did not show it, he could clearly understand why the doctor was so concerned. _What in the world is wrong with these kids can scare a T-rexaur into hiding?_

It was the third time when Dr. Kadowaki called his name that he heard it, and looked up. He had not even been aware that he was rubbing his eyes until then. "Squall? Are you feeling alright? You look worse for ware."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping that well lately…" His voice trailed off when he realized what he was saying.

Dr. Kadowaki stood suddenly, but still reached over to pat his hand like a concerned parent. "Don't you start worrying on me. I'm hardly concerned about you falling under this. Hyne knows you run a busier schedule than all of us put together, so I'm not in least bit surprised that you're feeling it. A good night's sleep would do you a bit of good, I can tell you that much. Why don't you try it sometime? Even if it means sacrificing a night of all that paperwork I know you so love doing." The smirk on his face was even less prominent than the one before. "It's nice to see that you're making an attempt to smile anymore, Mr. Commander, even if it does look painful at times. And listen, I'm serious. You wouldn't believe how well you'd feel after you get a few extra hours of sleep in. And if you don't, then I'll make sure Rinoa _will_ make you, and I know that she would jump at the opportunity."

Despite her rather stressed situation, it was still a comfort to see that she was still enjoyed the occasional joke. It made Squall feel a little better, and not as concerned as he was. If it was truly something serious, than the Garden doctor certainly would not be trying to make him fell better. "I know she would. Just let me know if the situation gets worse. Until then, all we can do is make sure that the junior cadets are back on their feet in the shortest amount of time possible."

"Until we figure out what's the problem, it's all we can do." The doctor agreed. Squall nodded, acknowledging it as the end of their meeting, turned and left the infirmary. Once outside, he sighed, leaning against the doorframe and rubbing his eyes. Just because they had defeated the threat of Ultimacia's evil plan, what – three years ago, four? – did not mean that life would be any easier.

Of course, Squall had his hands full with all the duties of commander of Balamb Garden, a task that seemed to hold surprises and problems twenty-four hours a day. He missed that scarce space of time they had just shortly after the defeat of the Sorceress and once the world was getting back to its feet, before the duties that they upheld before came back at them. But even then it was not as easy as it sounded. Nothing ever was. The defeat of Ultimacia did not mean that the world was going to be fine and dandy, even in the present. 

For one, Esthar was a complete mess; the Lunar Cry had certainly taken its toll. The once grand city was almost broken, much like the spirits of its citizens, and the whole country was overrun with monsters of every shape and form. President Laguna Loire made constant requests to for SeeD to help take care of them, but no matter how many SeeDs were dispatched to Esthar, they made hardly a scratch in the horrendous amounts of monsters that to this day continued to grow and multiply. As many as ten squads were dispatched at a time, sometimes more depending on the situation. Squall found himself making requests to the other Gardens, Galbadia and Trabia, to dispatch their own SeeD to Esthar when their own numbers were running low. Assisting Esthar was still only one client among many that made requests to the missionary force. And, to make matters worse, dealing with Esthar also meant having to deal with Laguna personally. There were times when Squall would rather swallow his own tongue than having to deal with the president, after he discovered the truth.

But at least the money going back into Garden was a fitting enough reward for the hard work going into it. That was one of the nicer aspects about being employed by the richest country in the world, and Laguna certainly made sure that he paid for all the hard work SeeD was dealing with. And it was not just Balamb that was getting the benefits; all three of the Gardens were prospering. He was even putting enough money into it to help rebuild Trabia almost immediately after the Neo Sorceress Wars had ended. That was three years ago, and now Trabia was back and fully functioning as it had been before the Galbadian missile incident. 

__

But it's not like it was all fun and games for the others when we returned. Squall reminded himself. The others who had been there with him during the battle with Ultimacia – his friends – had all had their hands full as well. As soon as Selphie realized that Laguna was going to assist in rebuilding Trabia, she was back on the Ragnorok and on her way up north to help out too. And, of course, Irvine was not too far behind, so there was a period when those two were gone for a lengthy period of time. Quistis had gotten her job as instructor back after proving all too well the qualities she seemed to have lacked before. Zell was finally given his chance to be the leader he always wanted to be and had been appointed to oversee the missions to Esthar whenever Squall could not do it himself, and that was fairly often anymore. 

Galbadia had still proven to be somewhat of a problem, even after the Neo Sorceress Wars. The government was trying desperately hard to maintain its hold on the few territories it had left. One of which was still Timber, but with its military forces weakened after the death of Deling and the defeat of Ultimacia, it was not too hard to make sure that they stayed in order so peace could be maintained. This was a perfect opportunity for Rinoa to finish her liberation of Timber, which regained its freedom within a few months time. And once Timber and Dollet had their rightful independence back, it was a matter to make sure that Galbadia stayed in line, which included appointing a new president which, once again, Rinoa oversaw. Of course, this meant that they could not spend nearly as much time together as Squall wanted to, but it still had its benefits. Although it was truly not a test of strength and stamina on the battlefield as most SeeD tests were, it was still enough to initiate Rinoa in as a full-fledged SeeD along with her friends. As exciting as this was for her and the others, it was safe to say that good old Daddy Caraway was not as pleased. Or at least so it seemed… Squall had a feeling that the distance between him and his daughter was still to great for him to show anything that would count as intimate father/daughter feelings. But what would he know? Look who his father was, for Hyne's sake.

And as for Seifer and his posse… well, the decision on what to do with them had been quite a challenge. As expected, many people had strongly suggested kicking them out of Garden forever for treason against SeeD. For a while, Squall had considered this; he was especially grudging against Seifer for giving Rinoa to Adel, but his rational commander mind told him to think through a bit more before making the final decision. True, Seifer had served as the Sorceress's Knight, but that did not make him really _evil. _He was merely fulfilling his dream, for what he thought was good in his mind… Bringing Squall back to his own argument that there was no real good or evil in the world, only separate, extreme view points. Seifer may have caused some problems for them and played a part in commencing the Neo Sorceress Wars, but Squall could not expel him for living his dream. So, with much disagreement from his peers, Seifer, Fujin and Raijin were admitted back into Garden and were even allowed to pass first SeeD exam after things were back on track. Of course, it did not change things between them; Seifer was still Squall's number one rival, but at least he was not after blood anymore. There was now definitely an air of respect between them, although it still was faint and somewhat shaky.

That had all happened in the first year after the Neo Sorceress War, and it had all happened so fast that just thinking back to the incident made Squall's mind spin. Thankfully, things had slowed down somewhat since then. The only nice thing that came out of all of it that now the normal day-to-day work seemed like a walk in the park compared to everything that needed to get done before. And even through all the hustle and bustle of who were most likely the most active SeeD in the Garden, Squall was pleased to see that their relationships were not suffering. 

If you had told Squall four years ago that he would fall heads-over-heels in love with an angel fallen to the earth, he would have probably looked at you as if you were nuts. But now…Rinoa was his life, his passion, his world. The thought of loosing her made his chest ache; he had never imagined it was humanly possible to feel so close, so humanly complete with another person, even if was an act as simple as holding their hand. And to make sure he never lost that feeling, the couple was making plans to marry next spring. 

Irvine and Selphie were unmistakably a couple, and a close one at that; that in itself was not a surprise. Anyone could see that one coming. It was the same for Zell and his girlfriend, Tashlin, who spent every waking moment together when Zell was not away on a mission. Perhaps the only couple that none of them did not see coming was Seifer and Quistis; seeing them together was like a mental slap at first. Even today Squall could not understand why it was they hooked up; his best guess was their equally stubborn personalities was what pulled them together, in a strange, almost ironic way. But the two seemed close enough, and Quistis was even accepted by Fujin and Raijin, and that was really saying something.

"Squall!"

A very familiar and very beautiful voice shook him out of his thought, a silver bell tolling through the chaos of his mind. He looked up and almost smiled a real smile when he saw his fiancé running towards him, decked out in her SeeD uniform, long black hair falling loose around her shoulders. No matter how many times he saw her in it, he always thought she looked stunning, as if she was made to wear one. She greeted him in her usual; throwing her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek before pulling away with an almost uncharacteristic serious look on her angel-like features, still holding onto his hand. "I've been looking all over for you! There's something I have to show you!"

"Is it really that important?" Squall did not mean to make it sound as prude as it was, but he had to organize the next squad to Esthar, to be dispatched in forty-eight hours. At least they would not have to travel far; Squall learned long ago that it was better to just park Balamb Garden in Esthar to cut down on energy and traveling time. And Rinoa knew better than to think he was blowing her off. She well knew of his busy schedule, but in return, he also knew that she would not bother him with something that would have wasted his time.

"Well…several people have come up to me and they're all kind of concerned. They thought that I should tell you." She looked a little nervous about this… was that a hint of fear in her eyes? "I saw it too and, it's…well…it's weird. I think you should see it yourself."

"Okay." Squall said without a second thought to what was waiting for him back at his office. Ever since the defeat of Ultimacia, there was very little that could shake Rinoa's spirit that burned as fierce as any fire spell. What was wrong that had spooked her like this? "Lead the way." She smiled at him, but the usually bright display seemed to almost be a little shadowed. She gave his hand another squeeze, turned and began to walk out of the infirmary hallway. Although the entire Garden knew that they were getting married in the next year, they still did not walk hand-in-hand, as much as both would have liked to. It was still important that they maintained their image as responsible role models SeeDs for the junior cadets, especially when they were in uniform. Besides, it was to avoid a lecture that they both knew Quistis was just itching to give them if she ever caught them.

Rinoa led Squall around the circular floor of Garden's first level, out beyond the front gates after clearing their departure with the SeeD who guarded the front gates. The monsters were more ruthless than they had ever been; at least back in Balamb they kept their distance from the Garden's front gates. Esthar was another story. Until Squall had placed guards up front, they would be getting creatures as dangerous as Toroma as far as the front hallways of Garden before they were defeated. He still shuddered at the memory of the one that had managed to cast a meteor spell _inside_ the Garden walls before they brought it down.

"Rin, where exactly are we going?" Squall questioned a few moments later. If he had known they were going so far out, he would have grabbed Lion Heart first. 

The young sorceress did not break her stride as she pressed on, and stopped at what was the public Cure drawpoint. "This." She said, gesturing towards the drawpoint. Squall looked at it for a moment, then back at her. 

"And?"

The look that she gave to him was one of disbelief. "Squall, don't you notice?"

"Notice what?"

"The drawpoint…it's completely dry."

For a moment, that did not strike Squall as anything unusual. "It's nothing to get worked up about. Someone probably just drew from it a while ago."

"I don't mean it's dry as in someone just used it." Rinoa said in the tone of voice she got when she felt as if someone was not listening. "I mean it's empty like _there's nothing there at all_."

Squall did turn around at this, but said nothing. What was there to say?

With a slight pout on her lips, she seized his hand and pulled it to the drawpoint, directly over where the magic seeped out of its well. It was then Squall knew why she was so worked up.

The feeling over the drawpoint was…nothing. At least when someone drew from a drawpoint, there was a feeling of magical residue, not enough to get any power from, but just enough to tell you that it was a source of magic that would later replenish itself. What Squall was feeling now was one that there had been nothing there to begin with. 

Squall shivered. He knew now why Rinoa was so worked up over this. It felt as if the bottom of his stomach has dropped away and ice had seeped into his blood.

He had never known such a feeling of such nothingness, such emptiness to ever exist.

It was as if the only thing that had ever been there was a hole in the ground.

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To be continued….

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Author's Note: Sorry it was short, but I hope it was okay. Not sure how long until I get the next chapter out…I have lots to update. If anything here is incorrect to the game, please e-mail me and let me know. I'll change it ASAP.


	2. Stone Dust

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Author's note: Yes, I am aware that the band Queen does not exsist in the world of Final Fantasy VIII. But for the sake of this chapter, bare with me, okay?

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Chapter Two

Stone Dust

For the first time ever, Squall sat at his desk and did nothing besides tap the end of his pencil in a rhythmic manner on the patterned wood surface. He rested his chin in his hand, stormy blue eyes focused solidly out the window of his office, staring hard but not seeing. There was too much on his mind. Besides, there was nothing really exciting about the bleak landscape Esthar had to offer, either.

"Great merciful Hyne, someone mark this down on the calendar. The commander is actually not up to his scar in paperwork."

"Hello to you too, Quistis." Squall said without even looking up, the tapping undisturbed. "I think we have to mark another event down as well. This is the first time I've seen you in months without Seifer attached at your hip."

"Ha, ha, very amusing, Mr. Commander." Quistis mused, crossing her arms in front of her in her trademark consenting way. "He's actually busy right now with those junior cadets that Fujin flushed out of the secret area last night. But that to the side…what can you possibly be brooding about? Rinoa says you've been up here for hours, just thinking."

"Lots to think about."

"It's not about those drawpoints, is it? So the ones at the school aren't functioning properly. Maybe it's because when we moved the Garden they were taken away from their natural source. I don't think it's truly something to get that worried about. Is _that_ what's been bothering you the last week?"

Squall sighed, letting the pencil fall to the desk with a little clatter, and began to rummage around in one of his deck drawers. "It's not just that one. The entire school has dried up; the front gate, the Esuna draw in the library, and the Blizzard draw in the training center. Besides, they were working just fine up until last week. But those aren't the only ones that went dry, either," he added quickly before the blonde instructor could get two words in. "Last time I had SeeDs in Esthar I had them check the drawpoints around the city, and every single one of those are dry as well. Same with the world drawpoints. I had Xu put together a quick list of all registered drawpoints and had the residents of the areas inspect them, and every one was dry." He found what he was looking for at last. It was a small stack of papers with three columns; one of the type of drawpoint and what magic was found there, its location and it's current status. He slid the papers over to Quistis, who examined it over the frames of her glasses, her eyebrows rising steadily to her hairline. Every single registered drawpoint was as dry as a bone.

"What about the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell?"

"Haven't checked there yet. I haven't found anyone brave enough to check it out. As soon as Irvine and Selphie are rested enough, I'll have them go there in the _Ragnorok_. We can get faster results that way."

Quistis looked through the sheets of paper for a few more moments before setting them on the corner of the desk. "What do you plan to do about it?"

"What can we do?" Squall rephrased her question. "We can't really go to the drawpoints and say 'Hey, work again.' Out best shot at any sort of answers is to see Dr. Odine. I had Xu try to arrange a meeting, but he's booked until next week with meetings and such." He shook his head in the way Quistis read that there was nothing more to say about the subject until they knew more about it.

"I just got back from Dr. Kadowaki's office, and she's very concerned right now. Those flu symptoms she told you about? They're getting worse, Squall. She's had fifty kids in this last week with these symptoms, and I'm seeing more of them in my classes before they get bad enough to go to the infirmary. And still, nothing she's giving them is helping at all. We got thirty kids on our hands that are too damn weak to get out of bed, and the faculty is getting worried. To make matters worse, there are some instructors that think they might be coming down with this too."

A feeling of grave unease chewed at the back of Squall's mind, making his insides turn in slow somersaults. Balamb Garden had very ill children in its care and not a damn way to treat it. "Are the juniors noticing it?"

"How can't they? Their friends are ill and very irritable. More than just a little, I mean – they make a ruby dragon with a toothache look like a puppy. Believe me, I had to deal with several of them in my class. And apparently this thing is contagious? This isn't your average flu, Squall. Something's definitely is not right."

The young man nodded, not even bothering to say anything. "How is she dealing with those who are concerned?"

"The only thing she can do; talk to them and assure them that it's nothing to worry about, just a flu outbreak that happens to be a little worse than what we're used to seeing in the past. Then she also has to deal with the kids who are over-reacting and think that they are getting to symptoms, so they request medicine to keep the symptoms back. She has to refuse them, of course, because it has to be saved for those who are really sick, but she's even running low, even though it's not doing anything." Quistis sighed. "Which brings me to the real reason why I am here. She needs some SeeDs to go into Esthar and pick up some more supplies. Not that they do anything; just to keep the junior's minds at ease for the time being until we get more information."

"She needs SeeD to get medical supplies? Why not just order it from Esthar and have them shipped here?"

"For one, the people are Esthar are scared to death to step beyond the city limits. There's no telling what's waiting to pounce on them out in the open. Besides, not only that, but we also got a request from their medical facilities saying that they should speak with us on a fairly important matter. Apparently they feel more comfortable talking to a SeeD than any other authority."

"Can you do it?"

Quistis shook her head. "I have a class to teach in half an hour. It will take us at least that long to get within city limits. I think Zell's been hanging around the last few days; why not send him. If you can get him away from Tashlin first, that is. And Selphie and Irvine, if they feel up to it."

Squall nodded. Who better to go then some of the most trusted SeeDs in Garden? "The sounds good. Can you at least inform them for me? I have to get back to work."

"No problem." Quistis said with a slight nod, pushing her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose before turning on her heel to leave the office. Just as the doors hissed open, Squall heard Quistis' voice again. "Oh, hi Xu."

"Hello Quistis." The other female SeeD greeted her. "Is commander Leonhart available or is he still off in his own little world?"

A short soft laugh came from the instructor before she could answer. "For the time being, yes, but you might want to catch him now before he slips back. I'll see you later, I have to get ready for the next class." The two women saluted before heading in their separate ways.

"Yes, Xu?" Squall asked once the doors had closed behind Quistis.

"I know this is the last thing you want to hear, commander, but I just received a message from the Esthar palace."

"Big day for requests." Squall said, mostly to himself. He could almost guess what it was the next thing Xu was going to tell him, and that thought was putting his mood into a further slump.

It seemed as if Xu knew this as well, and almost hesitated in finishing the rest of her message. "It's from the president himself, sir. And he wants to speak to you directly and in person."

That was exactly what Squall dreaded hearing. He sighed and slid down in his chair a little. "Did he say why?"

"No, sir." Xu said, fidgeting a bit where she stood.

Squall sat back in his chair, thinking. If it were up to him, he would turn down the President's offer. But, being the commander of the most influential Garden, he really did not have a choice. "All right." He agreed, not bothering to mask the reluctance in his voice. _But if I'm going down, then I'm not going alone._ "Do you know if Selphie or any of the others are available to go to Esthar? Dr. Kadowaki needs someone to visit their medial facility."

"Selvine has been in the Garden since yesterday." Squall almost smiled at the nonchalant way that Quistis spoke the nickname they had long ago dubbed for the couple. In fact, all of the couples of their little group had nicknames for each other as result of too much drinking one night while they were all out on the town. The inside joke was that since they were almost always together with their significant others, they might as well have been meshed into one person, and so those people needed their own names. These names were, in retrospect, Squinoa, Selvine, Sefistis, and Tashel. What was even more surprising was the fact that the names had stuck around all those years, and now they were spoken as a way to save on time and without a second thought. "Selphie's having the _Ragnorok_ tuned up, though. Apparently Trabia had a mid-summer snowstorm, and the _Ragnorok'_s winter protection had been disconnected to shield it against the freeze. She told me the engine was making some funny noises, so if you're going to Esthar, then you'll have to take the long way and drive. Luckily, the number of monsters in this area is low as of right now, so you may be lucky enough to get in and out without any problem." Squall nodded slowly. It was well known by now that the monsters that were called down by the Lunar Cry were much more aggressive than they usually were, and have been known to attack moving vehicles in the very plains of the continent. It got so bad that he had no choice but to limit the commute to Esthar by airway only.

"Alright then. Contact Selphie, Irvine and Zell; they are to report to the medical facility of Esthar to pick up Dr. Kadowaki's request and to find out what it is they wanted to talk to us about. And Rinoa's going to accompany me to the Esthar Palace for my meeting with the president."

"For moral support?" Xu asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"In a way. Besides, it's an excuse to spend some time with her, even if it is a lousy one."

Xu only nodded. "I'll tell them right away, sir." She turned on her booted heel and left his office to inform his comrade of their mission. Shaking his head, Squall took the time to stretch his arms over his head before following her only a few moments afterwards.

* * *

Rinoa sat on the edge of the grand desk, studying her boots as she swung her feet in and out of her site. She knew that, properly, she should have been standing while in the president's company, ridged, eyes forward and back straight, not speaking unless spoken to… But the President of Esthar had not stopped insisting that she need not do that until she relaxed just enough to get him off her back. There was still that nagging at the back of her head that told her that she should still show the proper respect when in his company – that was what she got for having a general for a father – but, she also reminded herself, Laguna was not your standard president, either. While Deling was never seen in public in anything but a suit, Rinoa had yet to see Laguna wear anything else besides his casual clothes. And the man was never in a sour mood; he was naturally good-natured, always joking, always with that big, goofy smile on his face. And he seemed to like her well enough; he was all but calling her his daughter-in-law, for Hyne's sake! And, despite how her fiancé felt, she liked Laguna well enough. 

She often came with Squall when he was requested to speak to the president was not the most horrible assignment she ever had. Although she did not say much during the meeting, she was more there for moral support, but even then, a person would have to be stupid to think that she was merely there to hold his hand. What frightened her was what would happen if she did _not_ come with Squall at times like this. Between Laguna constantly trying to get on Squall's good side and Squall trying to keep as much emotional distance away from his as he could, the tension in the office was so thick that she could feel it. Rinoa shook her head, sadly. Even though her and her father could have been closer, it was never quite this bad. She hoped deep down that someday, maybe someday, they could get along.

Everyone else was in their standard positions; Squall standing as if he had been Petrified before the President's desk, hardly blinking. Kiros and Ward stood off to their sides, not as stiff, but they could feel the tension as well and were hinting at their own unease. And Laguna was…still being Laguna, facing out towards the magnificent city and talking with grand flourishes of his hands, as energetic as a young boy. But today…today there was something different about him, like a shadow that lay under his seemingly cheerful tone, unseen but definitely there. 

"The reports I'm getting in from your patrols are very good…they say that has been a dramatic decrease in the number of monsters that surround Esthar! We all knew it would take a while, but it looks like once again we've beaten the Lunar Cry!" Despite the victorious tone in his voice, Rinoa knew almost immediately that this was not the reason why Laguna wanted to talk to them. Apparently, this was exactly what Squall was thinking too.

"Either that or we've just been driving them out of Esthar and to other parts of the world." Squall's voice was the complete opposite of his father's; curt and too the point, and saying very clearly, "this is not the reason why you called us in." And, to her surprise, to say the least, Laguna picked up on that immediately as well. The president coughed nervously before putting on an air so serious that Rinoa hardly recognized him.

"Well…yeah, actually. The only thing is I'm not sure how much SeeD can help in this situation, I'm just concerned. A few days ago I got word from the medical facility of a major outbreak of some strain of what appears to be a flu bug, but with…some differences."

At this, Rinoa and Squall gave each other hooded looks, both of them dreading what was going to be said next. Squall spoke first; maybe hearing it from their own mouths would not make it sound so horrible, but somehow, Rinoa doubted it. "Let me guess. Those who have shown signs of the illness are also irritable and bad-tempered, right?"

Laguna turned around, looking a little disbelieving. "Yeah…how did you know?"

"We have similar problems at Garden right now. The current count is about fifty kids too weak to move and not a way to treat it, and we have more and more showing signs everyday."

To their surprise, Laguna suddenly laughed, but not in his normal cheerful way. It was actually rather dark and bitter, a sound that coming from the President, it was a very chilling and unsettling sound indeed. "Is that it? Then you got off easy. Either that, or you just haven't gotten to the real fun yet."

The two SeeDs were unsure of what to say to that. What _was_ there to say, other than to just listen?

"I fear that the symptoms that those infected throughout the city are showing more severe signs. They shy away from any sort of light, and I mean in a very violent manner; screaming, cursing, pushing themselves to the farthest corners of the dark, although they are strangely active at night. They rant about the things they fear and hate the most, as if they're afraid of their nightmares coming to life. The most popular of these rants goes back to the Lunar Cry and…" He paused for a moment, his vibrant green eyes flashing in Rinoa's direction for the space of a heartbeat. "and the return of the sorceress. They're completely scared out of their minds, and nothing I can do or say gives them any comfort. They just stopped listening to me, and they ignore all the local authorities as well."

"Does this mean that you need SeeD to patrol the city as well?"

Once again, Laguna surprised them by shaking his head. "Not yet. The people of Esthar get the impression that once SeeD's involved, then something really bad is happening, and they intend to panic. I don't want to risk that right now, not until we really know what's going on. I'll get Doc Odine on it as soon as I can. Until then, would it be too much of in inconvenience if you can keep some SeeDs on stand-by? Just in case….anything happens. Tensions are running high, and I'm worried more about riots right now."

"We would have to withdraw the SeeDs who are on monster patrol. If there is going to be a riot, it's going to be no small business."

"The safety of the people is more important than the monsters at the moment, especially if they're being pushed – _chased_ – back. Do what you have to do, and I'll make sure to make it up to you later."

"Just send word if anything goes wrong." Squall said, moving for the first time since they arrived, and Rinoa read his body language as a sign that it was time to go. "We'll be ready. Hopefully by then the _Ragnorok_ will be up and running, so we can have squads in the city in ten minutes." With that, he turned on his heel and began to walk from the President's office, Rinoa following closely behind.

"Hey, Squall."

The commander stopped at the sound of Laguna's voice, but only looked over his shoulder to see what it was that he wanted. The look that was now on his face was one that intrigued Rinoa, since she had only rarely seen it herself. Laguna was wearing a worried but unmistakable fatherly concern as he looked after them; a look that General Caraway gave her before they grew too apart for him to show it on the outside anymore. "This thing has me really freaked out. Just be careful, okay?"

At first Rinoa was sure that Squall was going to blow him off in the way that he usually did when Laguna tried to be, in a sense, fatherly to him, but today just proved to be one full of surprises. When Squall turned back around, he did not completely blow off the President as Rinoa had expected; instead he raised his hand and gave it a small wave in acknowledgment before heading out the President's office.

* * *

"_One_ case of medical supplies? The most powerful and advanced city in the world, and they were only able to give us one case of medical supplies?"

"It couldn't be helped!" Selphie protested. "The reason why we took so long was because the doctors were giving us a long lists of excuses of why they couldn't give us any more!"

"This is looking pretty bad, Squall." Irvine said, his face rarely serious. All three of them were looking rather grave, actually, and these were some of the biggest jokers that Squall knew. "The doctors gave us these to show you…it's a list of the amount of orders for medical supplies that are being shipped out all over the world, all requesting medicine for the same symptoms."

Fearing the worse, Squall snatched the papers away from the cowboy and looked them over, Rinoa peering over his shoulder for a better look. "Let me guess…strange flu-like symptoms with no possible treatment."

"Bingo." Zell nodded, his arms crossed before him. "But take a look at the amount of towns and cities that called for extra medicine."

The commander was silent for a moment as he flipped through the pages, his features steadily growing more and more disbelieving all the time. "But this…every single major city and town in the world has called for it!"

"Exactly. It's not just Esthar and our Garden. Even the smaller places like Winhill and Fisherman's Horizon are in need of it, and both the other Gardens have too many sick people to deal with as well. I mean, it seemed bad with us, but still…" Irvine shivered, and reached up to pull his hat further down his eyes, an unconscious gesture that he usually did when he was nervous. "Squall, this is getting serious. The whole world is getting infected."

"What are we going to do?" Selphie asked.

"What can we do?" It was a phrase that was becoming too often repeated anymore, and Squall began to desperately wish that he had a better answer. "The President told us that we're only seeing the minimal signs right now; apparently they will get worse. All we can really do now is keep an eye on the students. I wish…I wish that there was more that could be done." Rinoa's face softened as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Out of anyone else in the group, she knew best of all that Squall hated when he could not do a damn thing to help the situation.

"Let's just get back to the Garden. Dr. Kadowaki's going to be wondering where we are." As if to emphasize his point, Squall seized one side of the crate and Zell was quick to take the other. Hauling the heavy wooden crate up, the small team of SeeDs made their way back to wear their car was parked. 

"Why don't you chill for a while." Irvine's suggestion was more of a mild order as he snatched the keys out of Squall's hand. "I can drive back, you get some rest. It'll be the only you'll get for a long while, so might as well enjoy it while you can."

"He's right Squall." Rinoa said before he could protest, watching Selphie scramble into the front seat before Zell even had a chance to. "And don't worry about getting back to the Garden, Irvine's a good driver. It's better than having Zell drive, if that eases your mind at all."

"Yo! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Zell!" Rinoa said with a laugh and climbing into the car herself, nestling in between the two men before Irvine pulled out of the parking garage. It was not, however, until they were out of the city limits that any of them spoke; the silence had been almost unbearable, and the bleakness of the vast plains of Esthar was so boring it would put anyone out of their minds.

"Hey…it's too quiet in here! We need some music to lighten the mood!" Selphie piped suddenly and randomly from the front seat, and leaned over to turn to radio on. There was a temporary burst of static, and then they heard the lyrics of a very familiar song that was a favorite among their generation.

"Right on time! This is the best part of the song! Crank it up, Selph!"

Grinning broadly, Selphie gave the volume knob one good, solid twist, and the music of the song blared inside of the car, and everyone in the car (save for Squall) began to sing loudly and rather off-key to the well-known lyrics.

__

I see a little silhouetto of a man,  
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango.  
Thunderbolt and light'ning, very, very fright'ning me!

  
(Galileo.) Galileo. (Galileo.) Galileo, Galileo figaro  
Magnifico~o~o~o….

I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me.  
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,  
Spare him his life from this monstrosity!

  
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go.  
Bismillah! 

No! We will not let you go!  
(Let him go!) 

Bismillah! We will not let you go!  
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go!  
(Let me go.) Will not let you go.  
(Let me go.) Will not let you go. 

(Let me go.) Ah.  
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.  
(Oh mama mia, mama mia.) Mama mia, let me go.  
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me~e~e!

"Hey come on Squall, lighten up!" Zell said cheerfully, shaking their commander on the shoulder, who had actually somewhat curled up on his seat, as if he were embarrassed and wanted to disappear from that spot.

"You're all freaks." Squall responded in monotone. 

No one was offended, however; they all merely started laughing, and for that small instant all their worries and fears of the current situation. Selphie was doubled up on her seat, and Rinoa had thrown her arms around her finance's neck and was giggling uncontrollably against his shoulder while Irvine had to fight to keep his eyes on the road. It was like old times again right then and their, and Squall eventually let the embarrassment go and managed a small smile himself. 

The whole thing did not last forever, however, when something huge and heavy slammed into the side of their car, sharp horns tearing through the medal like tissue paper and sending the vehicle rolling fifty feet off the road.

It seemed like an eternity before the car came to a stop, laying on its side, all the windows broken out and the body horribly disfigured. When Irvine came to, he was laying on the passenger-side door, his seatbelt gouging painfully in his side and a piece of medal digging into his head. He moved, testing his condition; although he was really sore, nothing seemed to be broken and he was not seeing double, so he had not been hit too hard. Someone moved beside him, and when he looked down he saw Selphie laying next to him, the side of her face completely covered in blood that was soaking into her hair. "Sefie?" Irvine struggled to get up, but the seatbelt was restricting his movements. Selphie grimaced and groaned, reaching up to touch her own face as Irvine ran a hand through her hair, looking for the source of the blood. All he could find was a long thin cut just below her hairline, still bleeding sluggishly but otherwise not too serious. "Are you okay?"

"I think so." Selphie stammered, pushing herself up against the door. "What about the others? Zell? Squinoa?"

"Fine, fine…" Came Squall's response from somewhere in the back seat. He could have been feeling better; his back was aching terribly from where he was laying against the side of the door. And the fact that Rinoa was crushing his ribs from above did not make it any more comfortable. "Zell? Are you okay?"

"Sonnava bitch!"

"I think he's okay." Rinoa said with a small laugh.

Somehow Zell had managed the get thrown back behind the backseats and was the first out of all of them to try to stand up. He was sporting a rather nasty black eye on one side of his face, but considering the fact that the impact had been on his side, it could have been a lot worse. "What the hell was that hit us?"

"I don't know; I didn't see a thing."

"You didn't land on Lion Heart, did you?"

"If I did, I don't think I'd be alive right now." Zell grumped. "I think we lost a lot of the weapons out the windows when we rolled. I'll take a look." With one powerful kick, Zell was able to open up the back door and tumbled his way out. He was gone for perhaps five seconds before they heard him again, this time in a much more panicked tone. "Get out of the car! _Now_!"

It was easier said than done, and it took some careful foot work, but Rinoa and Irvine had managed to pull themselves out of the upturned doors first, carefully avoiding the broken glass and twisted medal, and help the others out of the broken frame. The vehicle that they had been riding in hardly looked like a car anymore; one side was completely buckled in, and smoke and oil seemed out from under the crushed hood. They did not have a long time to observe the damage before Zell was yelling at them again.

"_MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!"_

They scattered away from the wreckage just in time as a full-grown Behemoth slammed its horned head into what had once been their car, carrying it a short distance away and tearing it apart with one shake of its massive head before turning on those who had escaped from it. 

"How the hell did we miss _that?!_" Irvine shouted over the thundering of the charging monster.

"Who cares, let's just fry it!" Selphie said, and Summoned. "Leviathan! Get it!" A deep, whistling bellow filled the sky as the water-serpent reared behind the girl's petite frame and charged at the monster, brining with it the power of a massive tsunami that crushed the monster with little avail. Selphie eeped when she saw the monster merely shake the water off its deep coat, bellow and charge straight at her. "Not good!" She exclaimed loudly and was just barely able to dive out of the way as the Behemoth charged by, missing her by inches.

"The GF…had no effect on it…" Squall muttered to himself, disbelieving. The GFs had been so strong…and although a Behemoths were tough, even Leviathan's attack would have been more than enough to at least slow it down more than it had. This was the worse case scenario…in the middle of the Esthar planes, with no quick way back and no means to protect themselves…

"Squall! Catch!"

Squall turned his head just in time to see Irvine toss something in his direction, and he recognized the glowing blue blade immediately as Lion Heart. With a surge of confidence, Squall caught the gunblade skillfully by its revolver-hilt and charged towards the circling monster. The Behemoth turned on him, letting out a bellow that seemed to shake the very earth, and returned Squall's charge. With one graceful, powerful arch, the blade made a single clean cut through the tough hide of the monster, severing bone and muscle as easily as sliding through water.

With a guttural roar, the monster shuddered, stumbled…turn to stone, and _crumbled_.

The SeeDs were, more of less, shocked as the once rampaging Behemoth fell apart, turning to dust and stone at their feet, but not like a solid statue that was coming undone. It was… Squall searched for the right words to describe it. It was as if someone had made a stone shell of the monster's body, an exact replica on the outside, but in the inside it was…

"Hollow." Rinoa said suddenly, finishing off what he was thinking. They all looked at each other through their blood and bruises, all with the same unbelieving looks in their wild eyes. "As empty as the drawpoints."

Not a word was spoken as the fine stone dust was carried away on the dry Esthar wind.

-----

****

To Be Continued…

-----


	3. Restless Nights

****

Chapter Three

Restless Nights

If Squall had thought that events had been rough earlier that day, it was nothing compared to later that night. He had never fallen asleep easily; in the years past, the seclusion of the night usually got him thinking at almost unhealthy levels, plunging him into depths of his mind that made sleep uneasy and restless. Lately, the nighttime pondering had not been as bad, mainly since a lot of his troubled memories were put into clearer focus during the Neo Sorceress Wars… Not to mention, having Rinoa by his side at night was a constant comfort, the type of soul soothing that a child felt when sleeping with their favorite teddy bear.

But what was it about tonight that was so…different? That made it seem so much worse than what he remember them to be? Perhaps it was from the attack earlier that day. The site of a healthy, fell-grown Behemoth turning to dust before his eyes would have been an unsettling sight to anyone who might have witnessed it. Or maybe it was because that every fiber of his being was as stiff as a board, groaning in protest if he did no much as blinked an eye. Whatever it was, it kept him from getting the sleep he so needed that night…or so he thought. When Rinoa tried to prod him awake at three in the morning, it told him otherwise.

"Squall."

"Ng…" Squall muttered into the pillow, but did not open his eyes.

Rinoa shook his shoulder again, this time with a little more force. "Squall." She repeated his name, a little more firmly, but this time he did open his eyes, finally crawling out of the sleep that he had not realized he had fallen into. The room was almost completely black except for the thin strip of moonlight that illuminated the silhouettes of few pieces of furniture they had, and brought out the delicate features of Rinoa's attractive face in soft silver light and the concerned look it wore at that moment.

"Rinoa?" His voice was slurred, thick with sleep…or lack thereof. He tried to roll over to face her, but his body felt as if it were made of stone and only responded to his command as a single painful ache. He gave up the fight to roll over quickly; he just did not have the energy to fight it. "What's wrong?"

"It's not me, it's you." The concern was even more clear in her voice. "You've been tossing and turning for hours now. You were talking in your sleep. It sounded like you were having a nightmare?"

"Nightmares?" Squall repeated, then snorted. "I don't get nightmares, Rin."

"This certainly sounded like one. You were calling out for me and Ellone… You were asking us not to leave you alone, that you couldn't be alone in the world again. You…sounded so afraid. I never heard you that afraid before." 

Squall said nothing to this, remaining, if possible, even more still than he did before. Rinoa may not have known the Commander of SeeD as long as her other friends did, but there were still certain traits about him that not even they knew yet. Had Squall denied that he was afraid, he would have protested it as soon as the word left her lips. But since he was now remaining silent… Rinoa felt her heart grow heavy with sympathy as she lay down next to him again, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him close to her body. "Squall…you're not alone, you know. I'll always be here for you; me and Ellone. And even we're not here right away…the others will be. You were never alone Squall, and you never were."

To Rinoa's relief, she felt her fiancé slowly reach up a hand to grasp her own in an acknowledging squeeze. "It will be all right, Squall. Try to get some rest."

But neither of them slept very well that night.

* * *

On most occasions, Irvine slept like a log when we was finally out, but tonight was somehow different. When this should be a time when he should have been sleeping to regain his lost energy back, between the events of today and the other smaller missions that he had to complete beforehand, he found it, even in the world of unconsciousness, that it seemed to be impossible. It was turning out to be one of those annoying cases that no matter what position he lay in, he could not seem to get comfortable for the world. Every joint was aching, and the ghostly yet clear images that floated across his mind in his dream-like state were not helping the situation. Not just dreams, he later realized; memories that he had thought he had buried with his happy life, but were resurfacing like some monster at the bottom of the ocean. Memories of a small, dark-haired girl being led away from the place she called home, being led away from _him_, as Matron held him back from going after her. Images of a spinning Carrousel Clock shining down on Deling City, down on a parade complete with fireworks and brightly colored, flame-lit floats. Of a very familiar woman in a black dress… And him…with a gun… and the bullet…

That was why he was grateful that he woke up when he did when he realized that there was someone else in bed with him.

It felt as if Irvine had been pulled out of the twilight of sleep by the scruff of his neck, uncomfortable and unpleasant, but when he saw who it was laying beside him, he felt himself physically and mentally relax by a great bit. He was only slightly surprised to see Selphie curled up next to him, mainly because she certainly had not been there when he had fallen asleep. Although they had been together for nearly four years, they still slept in their own dorm rooms for the majority of the time. Selphie had made it perfectly clear long ago that just because they had been together for an extended amount of time, she still believed in the old tradition that sex should be saved until marriage. And as frustrating as it was, Irvine had complied to it, out of respect for her decision and, more importantly, because he loved her too much to risk loosing her due to his urging hormones.

Just because Selphie wanted to wait did not make her completely indifferent in their relationship. It was not at all uncommon for them to spend the night in one another dorm rooms. One of the features about his butterfly that he loved the most was how good it felt to just talk to her, which he felt he could do forever. There had not been too many other girls in the past who just liked to talk to him. So, of course, their conversations would sometimes carry late into the night, and why go back to your dorm when it was better to spend the night in the arms of you lover? 

But tonight…tonight was the first time since they were children that Irvine had awoken to find Selphie had crawled into bed with him.

"Sefie?" He questioned softly, lightly brushing the back of his hand across her cheek. The small girl made a soft noise in the back of her throat as her sleepy green eyes opened, widening in surprise as she took in her surroundings.

"Irvy? What are you doing here?"

Irvine could not help but chuckle. "I didn't go anywhere. You're the one who came to me."

Selphie was silent for a moment, thinking, the process slowed by her tiredness. "I don't remember coming here."

"You must have been sleep-walking, then. The door's still open." Reaching over his girlfriend, he groped around in the darkness until he found a shoe near the foot of his bed and threw it at the open doorframe. To hell with trying to get up. It hit the wood with a good, solid thunk with enough force to close it. And who cared if it woke anyone else up. He doubted anyone had been sleeping well lately, anyway. The cowboy fell back to the mattress with a sigh, and immediately felt Selphie snuggle up to him. "Sefie? Are you okay?"

Again, it took her a moment to respond. "I…I don't know. For some reason…I just feel afraid tonight. Like I said, I don't remember coming here, but I just don't want to be alone tonight."

"I bet you were having nightmares. You used to do that when we were kids, remember? You had a bad dream, you would always come and sleep in my bed." Silence once again fell in the tiny room. "I could never figure out why."

"Maybe…maybe it was because you were the only one I could go to. I mean, think it about it; Quistis would have scolded me. Seifer would have made fun of me. Zell would have gone to Matron. Squall was…well, Squall… and Ellone was usually busy with him. You were the only other one I could really go to. Besides…" Her voice trailed off as she pulled herself closer to him. "I always felt safest with you."

At her words, Irvine smiled into the darkness, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "Glad I was there to help." He whispered into her hair.

Even though she felt calmer being with him, not even Irvine could protect Selphie from the disturbing images that floated across her mind when the uneasy sleep finally claimed her again. Images of a broken and charred Trabia Garden, and her unable to do anything but watch the deadly assault of missiles that rained down from above.

* * *

Quistis stared blankly at the wall opposite of her, her pencil falling and rebounding off the surface of her desk in an endless, mindless manner. She had given up on trying to fall asleep hours ago, since it obviously was not going to happen, and decided that maybe doing some paperwork would bore her enough to help out. But now she regretted that decision, since the figures she saw on the paper before her had scared any sort of tiredness she might have felt. She did not like these figures that she was seeing. According to her attendance record, the number of junior candidates appearing for not only her class, but all classes, had dropped by almost sixty percent. If everything else that had been going on had been a bad sign, then this was an omen, and it shook her to the core. What was even worse was that they still did not know how to counter it. What if this so-called "flu"…turned fatal? Oh great, merciful Hyne…

A second sound joined that of her pencil, but this one was much louder; a harsh rapping sound on her door that made her jump a good three feet out of her chair. It took her a moment to collect herself and realize that it was just someone knocking on her door. With a sigh, the esteemed instructor of Balamb Garden rose from her desk, smoothing out a fold in her nightgown and pushing her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose, trying to regain some of her composure. It was not as if there was some horrible monster on the other side of her door. Besides, she had a feeling that as this time of night, there would only be one person who would dare to call on her at this hour.

Her previous thoughts of a monster being on the other side of the door almost made her laugh when she finally did open it and saw exactly who it was standing there. She was, thankfully, able to suppress her laughter into a mere smirk, but not enough to keep her caller from noticing. 

Seifer rose a questioning eyebrow at her. "Am I really that amusing?"

"No, no, it's not that." Quistis said, a few giggled escaping in her words. "Just something occurred to me."

The former Knight decided to let the subject drop. As highly acclaimed and mature as her reputation was, there were times when his girlfriend was downright weird. "So, are you going to invite me in or what?"

"That's a first. I don't think that you ever actually asked permission before. You hardly ever knock." It was Quistis' turn to raise the eyebrow, but Seifer merely shrugged and strolled past her, sitting down in the desk chair that she had occupied only moments before. "Hey, I was kind of using that."

"Sure you were." Seifer said in slight mockery. He knew her well enough that if she got up to answer the door, then she was not fully immersed in her paperwork. There were sometimes he wondered that if she would notice if someone set off a bomb in her office when she was really focused on her work. But still, he began to sift through the scattered sheets on her desk, looking over one with a long list of student's names. "Are these the present or the absent?"

"The absent, if you can believe it." The blonde said, leaning against the doorframe and massaging her eyes behind her glasses. "I don't know what to do. And don't get any ideas, they're not ditching. Most of those are the kids that are too bed-ridden to do anything."

Seifer held up his hands in a defensive position. "I wasn't thinking about anything! I know what's going on, I know these kids aren't cutting class for sport. Besides, the kids are getting a little smarter than not going to class because they don't feel like it. Half of them are scared shitless of Fujin and Raijin."

"Big surprise there."

"Seriously, Quis, have you heard about what some of these kids are resorting to? Just a few days ago Raijin had some piss-scared junior some up to him, spouting something about his roommate attacking him when he tried to open the window for some light. And I don't mean verbal. After he convinced Raijin to go calm him down, the kid had to go to the Doctor's office to have one hell of a bruise taken care of. Gave Raijin a run for him money, too. And this isn't the first time this has happened, either. They're getting violent, living in complete darkness… You know that I would never say this unless I meant it, but this whole thing has my worried. Fujin and Raijin don't like it either, and…" The blonde man fell silent for a moment, worry shadowing his face. "They called in sick today. With…with the flu."

"So…it's getting worse, like in Esthar…" Quistis shuddered, hugging herself from some unseen creature. For once in her life, she felt completely exposed, and unprotected. Not even the embrace of Seifer's strong arms around her could ease that horrible feeling. But how could you hide, much less protect yourself, from an enemy that you could not even see?

* * *

"I'm sorry, Zell. There's nothing more I can do for her than I can do for any of my other patients." Dr. Kadowaki kept her voice quiet, so the girl in the next room could not here the news she was telling the martial artist.

Zell shuffled his feet where he stood, looking down solemnly at his trusty red sneakers. "Well… can't you give her what you've been given everyone else? Just so she doesn't panic?"

"Of course, but you do realize…that is all I can do…"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks, doc." Zell tried to not look quite so forlorn as he walked past the Garden doctor, into the room where Tashlin sat on the bed. His dark-haired girlfriend looked at him as he approached her, a small but unconvincing smile on his face. Zell felt his heart constrict; she looked absolutely horrible. Her normally neat hair, pulled back in its traditional pigtail, was disheveled, sticking up at all odd angels, and there were dark circles under her eyes, her eyes weak and scared. A faint ghost of a smile appeared on her pale lips when she saw the spiky-haired man reappear in the door.

"What did she say?" Although her voice had always been delicate, Zell had to strain to hear what she had to say now.

Zell swallowed the lump in his throat. If there was one thing he absolutely hated in this world, it was lying to his loved ones. "She…the doctor's getting you some medicine. Then all it will take is some rest before you get better." He tried to smile in reassurance, but he already knew that it looked terribly strained and unconvincing. And there was an underlying knowledge in Tashlin's dark eyes that suggested that she knew that he was bending the truth to help ease her fears.

The doctor appeared a moment later, holding a small green bottle in her hand, which she folding in Tashlin's pale fingers, giving her instructions on how much to take and when. With that done, Zell thanked the doctor, helped Tashlin rise from the bed, and proceeded in walking her down the hall, towards their dorms.

Zell received the call from her at three o'clock, but he barely recognized the Garden's librarian over the phone through her teary, apologetic voice, but he was barely able to make out the message; that she was sick, and that she was scared. It had taken him two minutes to get to her dorm after falling out of bed and into some decent clothing so he could take her to doctor Kadowaki's office. But even before they reached the infirmary, he was already fear the worse, and what he had been dreaded for several days now; that someone he cared about had fallen to this phantom illness.

The halls of Garden were completely desolate at this time of night, as they should have been, but Zell found the silence disturbing. With everything that had been going on in the last few days, he found that the more people that were around, the better he felt, even if it was just by a little bit. But, right now, everything just seemed so…deserted.

Empty.

Dead.

He shook his head violently a few times, clearing the word from his mind as fast as possible. No. Not dead. That definitely was not the right word to use at a time like this. He tightened his arm around Tashlin's shoulder as they continued to make their way back to the dorms, their footsteps echoing in the vast emptiness of the front hall. Neither of them spoke until they reached Tashlin's room.

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" Zell asked tenderly as the librarian sank down onto her bed, looking down at her hands that were folded neatly in her lap. Zell knelt at the foot of her bed, folding his arms across her lap, looking up at her with big, concerned eyes.

"Would you…please?" Her voice was even more quiet than before. If there was one thing he knew well about her, it was that she certainly was not dense. Tashlin had been hanging around him and the orphanage gang long enough so that they did not have to keep classified information from her, and she knew just how serious and out of hand this situation was becoming. Unwittingly, her shoulders heaved slightly as a single tear splashed down onto her hands. "Zell…I'm scared…so scared…" The bottle of pills fell to the floor, to be intentionally forgotten, since they had no purpose.

At that time, Zell wished that he could do more than embrace her to ease her tears.

* * *

When Squall finally decided it was time to get out of bed the next morning, he could sense that there was something not right, although he could not put his finger on the exact cause. He looked out the window of his room, out onto the vast plains of Esthar, which was still gray from the thin light of dawn. That's when it hit him.

It was almost noon. Dawn had been over for nearly six hours.

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To Be Continued…

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Author's Note: Fwoo, I wrote this one all in one night! It would have been up sooner, but my last data CD ATE THE THIRD CHAPTER, so I had to write it all over again. So, what do you think? Do I have you in suspense enough yet? It was a little WAFFy at times, but it will pick up really soon. My favorite comment I got go far is still "What the HELL is going on?!", and I'm sure a lot of you are asking yourselves that same question, ne? Let me know!


	4. Midnight Fire

**Author's Notes:**  Fwoo, I did most of this in one night!  I hope you guys enjoy, I had a blast writing it.  Oh, and for the last few paragraphs, I suggest listening to the "Wounded" track of the FF8 soundtrack (Disk 2, number 15 I believe…the track where Edea stabs Squall) for the full effect…it's really powerful.  For the climax of this chapter, try some Linkin Park, especially "One Step Closer".  Good music.  Well, enjoy.  And if you think you were confused at the last chapters, it's nothing compared to this one!

Chapter 4

Night Fire

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Squall could never remember feeling more helpless in his entire life.  More helpless than when Ellone left him at the orphanage.  More helpless than when he learned that their beloved Matron was the Sorceress they had been trained to kill.  Even more helpless when Rinoa was in a coma during the Neo Sorceress Wars.  And he hated it.  All he could be was grateful that he, nor any of this other friends, had fallen victim to this flu-born-from-hell that had now almost completely consumed Balamb Garden.

They had learned some time before to let the ill remain where they were, locked in their pitch-black rooms, only to venture out at night; they were less of a danger that way.  There were very few of them left, anymore.  The ones who remained healthy – as in still maintaining their own sanity – were none other than Rinoa and himself, Quistis, Seifer, Irvine, Selphie, Zell, Dr. Kadowaki, Xu, and Nida, as well as a scarce handful of SeeD members who looked progressively worse everyday.  And, likewise, their numbers grew smaller with each passing night.

_Ten left.  Just ten to figure out what in Hyne's name is going on._

The oncoming of night had become a fear that forced the unaffected into their last safe sanctuary; the bridge of the Garden, where they disabled the elevator every day at sundown and sat huddled in the center of the room, trying their best to rest until the sun rose again.  Or did its best at rising, nowadays.

It was bad enough that the entire world population was becoming hell born creatures of the night; in the past few days, it was undoubted that the entire world itself was falling under the taint of the shadow.  Every day the sun was rising later and setting sooner, but to make it worse, the sun itself seemed to be growing dimmer, a flame of a dying candle, as if someone was gradually covering it in some translucent material.  The sun, which had once blazed hot and scorching over Esthar, had grown as dim as a winter day in Trabia, and was growing weaker by the hour.  When it rose that day, it was nothing more than a distant white star.

And the nights…  Squall shuddered.  Night and the darkness had never bothered him, even as a child, but there was something about the night now that chilled him to the bones.  Never before had he seen darkness such as the type that cloaked the land after dusk.  Even after they had defeated Ultimacia and he was lost in the folds of time, he had been lost in a world of darkness, of unending blackness with nothing to break it.  But now, if he were to compare that darkness to the night, the dark of the time-compressed world would have been stood out as starkly as newly fallen snow.  That blackness hid the stars from view, covered the moon in thick shadow, and made the world beyond the Garden completely invisible.

Squall exhaled, and his breath appeared before him as a cloud of frozen mist.  On top of everything, the world had also become so bloody _cold_.

A sound rose up from behind him, echoing in the cold still of night; footsteps, coming up slowly behind him in the cautious manner as to not startle him.  If he had not been aware of them there, he was sure they would have.  Although he knew he would never admit it, there had been a lot of things recently that had been making him jump.  

"Squall?"  Rinoa's voice was laced with concern.  "What are you doing out here?  You're going to catch your death, you know."

"Better by a cold than by what ninety-nine percent of the world has."  Squall said bitterly, slumping down further against the rail so his head was resting on his arms.

Rinoa felt a pang of sympathy strike at her heart.  She absolutely hated seeing him like this.  Every since she first met him, Squall had always been so strong, so confident in his own way.  Determined and stubborn, he rarely let anything stand in his way.  And if there was something there, he would always find a way to bust through it, even if it meant hurting himself at the same time.  The memory of the lengths he went to save her from space still deeply touched her heart.  But now… Now that confidence was all but gone.  She had never before seen him so… down.  Depressed.  Defeated.

Squaring her shoulders, Rinoa approached him from behind and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder.  "Well, you might not care, but I do.  Come inside."  Not that he had much of a choice.  The sun was sinking so rapidly in the sky he could easily see it, and Rinoa's tugging was enough to pull himself away from the balcony, pull his coat higher around his neck, and head back into the Garden.

"What are we going to do, Rin?"  Squall asked as they headed back in from the balcony, making their way through the deserted ballroom.  Even the physical world around them was loosing its life.  The ballroom that held such fond memories for him was now faded, the colors of the room as dull and gray as his own memories.  "What can we do to help all these people?"

The raven-haired SeeD did not answer right away.  "Hope."  She answered.  "Pray.  Wish for a turn in the tides soon."

"Pretty slim chances that those will work, don't you think?"  Squall said quietly, not taking her words at all to heart. 

Rinoa only shrugged.  "Squall, love, sometimes you just have to put some of your money on the chance that Hyne will solve this problem.  I know that's not what you want to hear, but sometimes, a little faith makes everything right."

For the first time in weeks, Squall almost smiled.  "You sound just like Matron, you know that?"

"She's a nice woman to talk to."  Rinoa said with a smile.  It seemed as if she was the only one really able to uphold anything along the lines of a grin these past few days; even Selphie was straining that one expression that used to be so natural on her.  Then her expression softened to one that was much more serious in its gentle demeanor.  "I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear, but that may be the best choice we have.  For right now, anyway.  And who knows.  Maybe it will turn around."

And, just like Matron, Rinoa always seemed to know what to say to make him feel calmer.  Not exactly happy, but it helped lift the weight from his shoulders a bit.  He also began to wonder if all Sorceresses (the non-evil ones, at least) had the same frame of mind.  

_Matron and Cid… I wonder how they're doing?  Ever since this began, we've been unsuccessful in sending a message to them… Have they fallen under this thing as well?_

By the time they reached to bridge on the third floor, everyone else had already gathered there, ready for the restless night ahead of them.  What was left of them, anyway, Squall observed as he felt his stomach sink.  "…Where're Xu and Nida?  Please tell me that they're on their way."  But his worse suspicions were confirmed when he saw Quistis slowly shake her head in defeat.  Suppressing a sigh, Squall approached the control panel of the Garden and disabled the elevator for the night.  

Never before had they looked in such worse shape.  Seifer was leaning against the chair that Quistis was sitting in, arms crossed and face dark in deep thought.  Selphie and Irvine were sitting on their floors with their backs to the wall, the cowboy's arm around the smaller girl's shoulders, holding her tightly; Squall wished he had not noticed the dark circles that were forming under her once vibrant green eyes.  Dr. Kadowaki was sitting in a chair opposite Quistis, staring off into space, her brow slightly furrowed.  And Zell…

At that time, Squall felt the greatest empathy for the martial artist, who was staring absently out the window.  Even since Tashlin had fallen completely to the illness, Zell had only been a mere shadow of his former self.  Squall could remember in detail the night it took him, Seifer and Irvine from his girlfriend's room and up to their last sanctuary, with Zell protesting the entire time about having to be with her.  It had been frustrating, to say the least, and took some very minor threats before her agreed to cooperate, but Squall understood why Zell had been so determined to stay by Tashlin's side, regardless of how dangerous she might have become.  Love, after all, made you do crazy things without a second thought to the consequences.

None of them really spoke much, anymore, outside of their significant others.  There was nothing to talk about.  The first few nights, of course, had been filled to the small hours of the morning with dead-end conversations of what the possible source of this darkness could be; it was obvious now that it was so much more than some sort of disease-causing illness.  One day they had cleared out the majority of the library of history records, both eventful and medical, to see if there had been anything similar to what they were experiencing now.  But when they thought that that was leading nowhere, Irvine began to notice an interesting patterns in the medical books.

Apparently in the past there had been small outbreaks of the flu in the past with some of the similar symptoms, although none of them compared to this scale, and they all went away in a few days.  The interesting thing was that the dates in which these outbreaks occurred were only months after a sorceress threat, dating back hundreds of years, the largest being just after Adel's imprisonment.  

"There definitely seems to be some sort of correlation between the two events."  Xu had observed when she was still with them.  "And so this would make sense, right?  There was a sorceress scare in the past, people got sick afterwards."

"It doesn't sound like a real logical reason.  How is the flu related in any way to a sorceress?"  Seifer had added.

That again was another roadblock.  "Well… it says that people got better not too long after all that happened right?"  Selphie said.  "Maybe the flu just gets worse with the threat.  And with Matron and Adel, that could be why it's so bad now."  

All the reasons still sounded like one heck of a long shot to Squall, but at the moment, it was the best explanation they had.  He wished that they could get a hold of Matron; maybe she would have the answers.  But, then again, maybe Selphie and Rinoa were right.  Maybe this thing would go away on its own, in due time.  He just wished it would start to clear up before he or any of his friends fell under it.

The night fell like a steadily dimming shadow, cloaking the world in black beyond black, and endless void that swallowed all traces of hopes and dreams.  The lights inside the bridge were quickly lit, but they did little to hold off the darkness.  They only created small pools of light that they huddled against to keep the darkness a bay, a the last little bit of comfort they had when the sun vanished over the horizon.  It sometimes felt as if Squall was loosing his very sanity in that gloom, especially since the time between dusk and dawn was growing so long.  No one had any idea that this night would turn out to be something that not even their nightmares could touch.

"Yo!"

That one word made everyone in the room jump about five feet in the air; it was the first time in days that Zell spoke.  He was suddenly on high alert, as rigid as a cat, staring out the large bridge window with fierce intensity.  "There's something not good going on down below.  All of the sick cadets are gathering in the quad… and it looks like they started a fire!  Oh, man, Squall… It's like a riot down there!"

The commander did not respond right away.  He only crossed the room again, confronting the control panel and immediately began to enter a series of codes into it.  "Leonhart, what are you doing?"  Seifer asked, but again, Squall did not answer."  There was a sudden click, a hum, and the elevator was unlocked and running.  "Are you crazy?  It'd be suicide to go out there!"

"But we can't have them destroying the Garden."  Squall finally replied firmly, picking up Lion Heart from where it was propped against a wall.  "Besides, they might hurt themselves in whatever it is they're doing down there.  You guys can all stay here, but I'm not going to just sit here and wait for this thing to solve itself.  Anyone who feels the same way is welcome to come."  Without waiting for anyone's response, Squall turned on his heel and began to walk towards the elevator.

"You won't survive five minutes out there by yourself."  Seifer called after him.  "I guess someone's going to need to cover your sorry tail."

"And you should learn by now that you can't go anywhere without me with you."  Rinoa said almost immediately after, nearly trudging on Seifer's heels as they caught up with Squall.  

"Or any of the rest of us, for that matter."  Irvine added, getting to his feet and helping Selphie to her own.  "Honestly, Squall.  We thought we were able to get you out of the whole independent shell thing."

Squall would have smiled in a way of appreciation had it not been for the dire events taking place below their feet.  Instead he only returned to his trek to the elevator, only this time with his reinforcements at close hand.  Students or not, he was not about to let _anybody_ destroy the place that had fought so hard to protect all those years ago.

"So do we even have a plan?"  Quistis asked before they stepped onto the elevator, once again halting Squall in his tracks.  "We obviously can't go in there and use brute force without seriously injuring anyway, but I don't think they'll listen if we ask them to stop, either."

"Chances are we'll be dealing with some more experienced cadets who will be Junctioned, and therefore be excepted for some magical assault.  Therefore, get yourselves healed now, because it won't work later on, so Rinoa, have Carbuncle ready as soon as we get out there.  I also suggest you Protect yourselves; we're probably going to be hit from all sides."

"So how do we get them back under control?" Zell asked from the back of the group.  Unsurprisingly, the thought of having to use any force against his beloved Tashlin was the last thing he wanted to do.

Squall thought for a moment.  "Not with weapons.  We don't want to hurt any of them.  So I guess the best way would be through status attacks, to lower their defenses and maybe to gain some control.  In that case, Seifer, Summon Cerberus when we get in there so we can use Triple the spells on them.  Other than that, our only other hope is the weakest magic that we have stocked.  And if things get too out of control… Irvine, Summon Diablos, but Level Down.  A Demi spell, if nothing else, will at least knock them off their feet for a while."  The cowboy did not say anything; he only nodded in solemn agreement.  Bringing the GFs into battle was the last thing that they wanted to do, but depending on how bad the situation was, they may not have had a choice.

"Does everyone understand?" Squall glanced at each face, but he already knew that there would be no disagreement.  "We're not sure how many there will be at the first floor, so be ready as soon as we get off.  Let's move out." 

All seven SeeDs crowded uncomfortably into the elevator with Squall, Rinoa and Seifer near the door to act first; both Rinoa and Seifer had fallen into a sort of half-trance, the telltale mark of preparing to Summon as soon as they disembarked.  In the depths of his own mind, Irvine roused Diablos, and the demon lay crouched, ready to act within a moment's notice.  The three-story decent seemed to take a lot longer than normal, but finally, it reached the 1F level of the Garden, and, weapons ready, Squall took the first flying leap out of the elevator as soon as the doors were open with the others not too far behind him.

The landing and the first level before them were…completely vacant.  Only the sounds of their footsteps could be heard, and even those echoed dully within the vast empty space around them.

"They must all have gathered in the Quad by now."  Quistis said, and they took off down the steps and towards the direction of the Quad without another word.

In the dead blackness of the world outside of the Garden walls, the bonfire that had been started seemed to be as hot and as bright as the summer sun, and would have almost been as welcoming if it had not been for the current situation.  Before they even got outside they could hear the roar of hundreds of voice; the SeeD cadets and SeeDs alike were obviously rioting against something and were making an awful big deal of it, but what, in Hyne's name, against _what?_

Praying that they would remain undetected, the small group made their way cautiously to the stairs that lead down to the main courtyard, where the entire population of the Garden had turned off.  Squall got there first and held out an arm to signal everyone to follow his example, and to remain silent.  Above anything else, they could not go into this under prepared, or they might not come out of it at all.

At this point, Squall could not make out what anyone was saying, nor pick up on a common theme; only that they were all gathered around the huge bonfire, jumping up and down, pumping their fists into the air, enjoying the burn… And on closer notice, Squall noticed that it was the stage of the Garden Festival that served as the fuel.  From the corner of his eye, he could barely see Selphie's pale and disbelieving face, as if she was unable to fully grasp the full concept of what was happening.  But there was something else burning within the depths of the inferno, and what was apparently the real reason why they were all cheering…

Apparently the rioters had torn down every single SeeD symbol in the Garden and were wallowing in the sight of them smoldering flames.  It was a sight that struck Squall in the heart as if he had been impaled by a Behemoth's horns.

Closing his eyes briefly, he shook the horrible feeling away and looked back at his comrades with a new furious light burning in his stormy eyes.  "Protect yourselves, then Irvine, shoot a warning shot in the air to get their attention. Once we're all Reflected, we won't be able to Protect ourselves again, so let's get this done fast."  With the scarcest of agreement, they Protected themselves almost all at once, the blue light of the spell drowned out by the blaze of the fire.  Once the last traces of the casted spells disappeared, Irvine rose Exeter to his shoulder and fired a single deafening shot into the air, ringing louder than Squall certainly had anticipated.  Certainly loud enough to draw the mob's attention away from the fire and focusing on the group that stood before them, and, eerily enough, silencing them in what seemed to be a moment of confusion.

In that moment of silence and confusion, Squall forgot himself and yelled in nearly a blind rage, "_What on Hyne's name do you think you're doing_?"

"We have been deceived by the Garden!"  Someone yelled from the crowd.  "We have been training for a lie!"  The wave of agreement returned what was once the roar of the crowd, making it almost impossible to Squall to ask anything further.

"The true meaning SeeD has been a lie!"  One of the newer SeeD members cried.

"We were only puppets in a cruel scheme!"  Xu shouted from one of the closest ranks.

"The Garden is a joke!"

"Death to the Garden!"

"Death to the SeeD!"

In a desperate effort to make some meaning of what was happening, Squall swung Lion Heart once and pulled the trigger; the shot from his Gunblade almost shamed the previous shot of Exeter but only succeeded in returning some of the order as the front ranks of SeeDs and cadets backed away.  "What are you talking about?  How is the meaning of SeeD a lie?!"

"Because we house what we fight again and take her side!  A sorceress!" The SeeD speaking pointed a finger straight as Rinoa as if for dramatic emphasis.

Squall could not believe what he was hearing and was desperately beginning to wish that this was all just a very, very bad dream.  "Rinoa?  How can you turn on her like that?"

"How do you know?!" Came an angry shout before them.  "How do we know that she won't turn on us?  She could all turn us into her slaves, ya know?"

"UNFORGIVABLE!"

"But you all know Rinoa!" Squall shouted back, now nearly frantic.  "She is _not_ like the other Sorceresses!  We have no reason to fight her!"

"Maybe now!" Nida yelled back, a strange ferocity in his usually passive eyes.  "But that can change!  I say we not take that risk and stop it before it ever happens!" In a vociferous roar of agreement, the mass of revolting people rushed the mere seven that stood on the opposition.

"Seifer!  Rinoa!  Now!"  But the two did not need to be reminded as the Summoned almost simultaneously.  The sky bled red for the space of only a few seconds as Cerberus rose from behind the crowds, the spells of the Counter Rockets already in the mouths of its three heads and Carbuncle appeared from the ground.  With a wild howl, Cerberus released its spell just as Carbuncle cast its Ruby Light.  Counter Rockets was cast first as Ruby Light washed over them a heartbeat later, successfully lasting Double, Triple and Reflect almost all at once with perfect timing.  With the spells in place, they wasted no time in unleashing Status-Effect magic in sets of two and three; the first few ranks of charging SeeDs went down easily in a flurry of Blind, Sleep, Confusion spells, but they knew if they stayed in that area, then it would not be long before their resources became exhausted.  

Squall felt a Fire spell crash over him, making him flinch but nonetheless not damaging him as it bounced off the Reflect shield and back at the cadet who had cast it, taking down three others with him.  This was not going to go as cleanly as Squall thought it would, but what else were they to do?  And in the midst of the chaos, he could see the fire of the bonfire beginning to creep its way up the nearest wall and setting several nearby trees ablaze.  _If we don't stop that, then the whole Garden can go up!_  

"Selphie!" He shouted over the din of the battle.  "Summon Leviathan, we have to get that fire out!"  Squall turned his attention back to the crowds, throwing a hand forward and unleashing a wave of Demi spells that cleared a space in the mob before him.  _Shiva, I need your help.  Assist Leviathan in getting that fire out!_

The already chilled air around him as Shiva appeared from the ground almost immediately from Squall's command, and a familiar whistling bellow signified Leviathan's appearance.  The giant serpent reared over their heads, then bowed low to allow Shiva to jump onto his back before they both took off to the inferno, releasing their attacks to kill the now out-of-control fire.

Squall almost lost his footing when he felt a Thundra Spell crash into him, followed shortly by a Bio.  Although the Reflect would stop any physical damage from the magic spells, he was still getting thrown around quite a bit.  That, and they were loosing this battle, and fast; they had already been pushed back to nearly the very entrance of the Quad.   He tried over and over to get to Rinoa to protect her, he was sure that she would have been the main target, but every time he got remotely close a blow from a weapon or a spell knocked him back several feet.  From what he could see, it appeared as if Rinoa was having an okay time fending off the attackers herself, and Quistis was close at hand as well.  Before he was pushed away he saw the instructor lash out with Save the Queen to wrap around the weapon of a student, ripe the weapon from his hand before throwing a Confuse spell in his face.

"We can't hold out much longer Squall, and I'm beginning to run dry!" He barely heard Zell say as another group of students dropped from some Sleep spells.  "We don't have a choice!  Have Irvine Summon Diablos!"  As much as he hated to admit it, Squall knew that they had no other choice.  It was several hundred people against just them, and if they were overpowered… then it would be all over.

"Irvine!  Call Diablos!  Seifer, use the Level Down ability on him first!"  

Both Seifer and Irvine had their hands full warding off physical attacks from some of the higher-trained SeeDs, but Seifer was nonetheless able to use Tonberry's Level Down ability to weaken Diablos' overall attack, and Irvine Summoned.

Through the darkness of the night, Squall was unable to see the gathering of bats the signaled Diablos' arrival, but Squall could still feel the ominous presence of the GF as he built up his power.  Sickly yellow lightning shattered across the sky, outlining the silhouette of the devil in eerie shadows as his Dark Messenger Spell built in strength and size.  

_Hyne, please forgive me, I had no other choice._

Just as the spell hit a breaking point, Squall leap out of the way of his attackers, hitting the ground with the others as they gathered in a tight-nit group in an attempt to shield themselves as Diablos unleashed his spell and it crashed into the group below him

In the space of a heartbeat, the thundering roar of the battle turned to the silence of a graveyard, sending a shiver down Squall's spine.  For being silent, it was the most unsettling sound that Squall ever heard.  Light flared somewhere behind him, and he slowly he cracked one eye open and looked back out at the battlefield, and saw that every single cadet, every single SeeD had been grounded.  Rinoa had created some sort of sphere of glowing light that hovered above them, illuminating the scene before them in a ghostly pale light.

"Great Hyne…they're not dead are they?" Quistis was the first to break away from the group, rushing over to the nearest SeeD and checking her pulse, sighing in relief when there was one to be found.  Zell was not too far behind her, but he instead rushed out into the sea of unconscious bodies, calling desperately for Tashlin, and Seifer searching for the fallen members of his posse.  Selphie was walking in a near-trance to the ruins of the stage with Irvine following her silently.

"No…he was Leveled Down enough to just knock them out long enough."  Squall said gravely, picking himself up.  Rinoa was close behind him, looping her arm through his and holding him close.  Squall shivered, closing his eyes tightly and turning around to embrace her tightly, burying his face in her hair.  "Rin…I didn't want to… We used the GFs on our own…."

"Shhh…"  She soothed, stroking his hair.  "You didn't have a choice.  Squall, we all know you were thinking about what was best for everyone…you did you best…"  Squall pulled away from her, keeping his eyes hidden under his disheveled hair.  "What are we going to do with all of them?"

"I…don't know.  They'll only be out for an hour, tops, so we have to…"

"Squall!"

Both Squall and Rinoa looked over to the center of the Quad where the others had gathered, looking skyward.  It was also then that Squall heard the sound of flapping wings and a deep, throaty growl…Diablos was still out.  "He says that there's something up there." Irvine said, not taking his eyes off his GF.  "But he can't…."

Suddenly with a howling scream that made the teeth in Squall's head rattle, Diablos reared back as if he had been struck along the head, faulting in the air… It had to have been one of the most horrible sounds that Squall had ever heard, and he did his best to try to purge it from his memory only to have Diablos scream again, writhing once again, and his time sending him falling straight into the ashes and remains of the bonfire.  "Diablos!"  Irvine was at the GF's side at an instant, kneeling near the devil's head.  Diablos opened his fire-orange eyes weakly, made a small effort to lift his head only to let it fall back before fading away, returning to Irvine's mind in a complete KO situation.  The others only stood there in stunned silence, but before any of them could say anything…

"Look!"  Selphie shouted, pointing up towards the sky.  Squall followed her finger up…and his eye widened in amazement.

In the light of Rinoa's glowing sphere, he could see that the night sky above them had suddenly become full of hundreds, if not thousands, of flying black…._things_ that circled and screamed above their heads.  They reminded Squall of winged snakes; hideous, greasy snakes with acid greens eyes that glared down at them, circling over their heads like vultures…

"What the hell are _those?!_" Zell exclaimed, voicing all of their thoughts almost perfectly.  

"I don't know…but let's not take any chances!  Shiva, Bahamut, get them!"  Everyone else caught on almost immediately, and proceeded in Summoning their strongest GFs; except for the exception of Diablos, Siren, Ifrit, Alexander, Quetzelcotal and Cerberus all appeared at their master's Summon to join Shiva and Bahamut, a grand display of raw power at its greatest form.  But to Squall's shock, the things in the air did not seem to sense the danger of the situation; in fact, if anything, it seemed to make them _excited_.  The hell-born creatures suddenly began to swoop and dive, coming dangerously close to the unconscious cadets and SeeDs.

In a wave of power that would have sent Ultima Weapon running for cover, all of the GFs unleashed their most powerful attacks at once; a solid wave of magic that would have leveled a mountain.  But what happened made the pit drop out of Squall's stomach completely out of existence.  For the wave of attacks did hit its target, but _disintegrated_ into absolute nothing upon contact.  The assault of the most powerful spells known to man – Thunder Storm, Diamond Dust, Holy Judgment, Mega Flare – was as harmless as a warm breeze.  And where those things…laughing at them?

Then, one by one, the GFs began to physically fall back, slumping over, collapsing before fading away into.  And they were not even fading back into their minds.  They were fading into…complete nothingness, their junctions falling apart like crumbling ash on the wind.  Squall could _feel_ himself grow weaker in all its forms, making him feel as helpless as a newborn kitten.

Shiva was the last to disappear completely, falling to her knees just before she joined the rest.  Before she faded from Squall's sight, she looked over her shoulder with sad and defeated eyes.  

_I'm sorry, Master…_

Then she was gone.

Overhead, the mass of flying creatures increased as they intensified their circled, descending lower onto them.  And they were helpless to do nothing but watch in disbelieving silence.

_This is not happening…this is not happening…_

With a scream, Squall saw Selphie fly back as if she had been physically struck, sliding backwards a good twenty feet along the ground, just before Zell was picked up by invisible hands and thrown into a wall.  One by one they were struck down, until Squall felt something wrap around his neck, lift him clean off his feet…

Pain exploded through his skull and there was only darkness.

--------

To be Continued… 

--------


	5. Tainted Butterflies

**Author's Note:**  Just a snippin before we get started.  This chapter is dedicated to my friend Miyu, who gave me the idea for the title.  I wuff you, babes!  There's also a nice little Waffy part in here for you Sefistis fans.

****

**Chapter 5**

**Tainted Butterflies**

For the first time in his life, Squall was ready to admit defeat.

He stopped thinking that after each event, the worse was over, because low and behold, there was always something more shocking at around every corner.  Since that horrible night, they had all given up on the fancy that maybe this whole thing would blow over and become resolved on its own, because that was the last thing that was going to happen.  When they had come to the following dark morning, after nearly freezing to death the night before, they found that they were still in the quad, but now they were…completely alone.

Every other SeeD candidate, every single SeeD member and Garden staff, was completely gone from where they had lain unconscious the night before from Diablos' Dark Messenger attack.  Taking away, disappearing into the darkness of the world without a single trace.  As of that moment, along with the doctor, they were the only ones left in the entire Garden.

And now…

It seemed that with their GFs gone – the most powerful known GFs in the world, his mind added bleakly – they seemed to become more vulnerable to the darkness.  Had that been their means of defense?  Was that why they had come this far?  Whatever it was, it had disappeared along with the entire population of Garden.  

_Exposed…defenseless…_

And now Irvine was telling him that Selphie had not been out of her room since they had awoke that morning, which was almost two days ago?

Rinoa had almost given up trying to say things to make the situation seem not as bad as it truly was, because obviously, it was much worse than any of them had thought had it would be when it all first began.  Now she just remained by his side all the time, her arm woven through his, as if she was afraid that if she were to let go, even for a second, than he would fade away into the darkness.

The only question was now, how much time did they have before they to fell to the shadow?

*  *  *

For the umpteenth time that day, Irvine stood outside of Selphie's dorms, praying feverishly that this time, she would answer her door when he knocked.  The already shadowed sky, darker than ever since that fateful night, was fading even more deeply into black beyond black, and the cold air was just slightly above freezing.  None of that mattered to the Galbadian cowboy; not now, anyway.  The only thing that concerned him now was the woman whom, he still assumed, was on the other side of the door, and who had not been out of her room since the riot in the Quad.  At first he figured that the whole event had her upset – hell, who didn't find it disturbing? – but after a day, he realized that Selphie, no matter how bad things got, would never stay depressed for such a lengthy period of time.  And, even though he fought against what looked to be inevitable, he hoped that it being night did not influence Selphie's already unorthodox behavior.

He wished that he still had his two Guardian Forces, Diablos and Doomtrain, with him to confide with.  As much as he was against Junctioning at first, he sometimes found that on long and trying missions, their company and judgment were somewhat of a comfort… They had also done their part in getting him out of a tight fix every now and then.  But now, with them gone…he had never felt so alone in his own head, nor so physically weak in his life.  As much of a pain Diablos was at times, and the fact that Doomtrain was something of a worrywart, he really missed their company.  That, and they helped in making him feel less alone and helpless in this time.

But the loneliness he felt with the absence of his GFs was nothing compared to what he felt when he was apart from Selphie, regardless of if she was on the other side of the door or not.

They had run out of time for Irvine to simply knock and wait to see if Selphie would let him in.  Reaching into the pocket of his duster, Irvine drew out the Access Card that Squall had lent him, the "skeleton key" of the Garden that would allow him into any room that he might have needed into, including the dorm rooms.  Fingers trembling slightly, the cowboy slid the card through the key slot on the side of Selphie's door, and with a click, the little light changed from red to green, allowing him access into her room.

A walk-in freezer would have been considered comfortable compared to Selphie's room; looking back on it, he could never remember feeling more cold in his entire life.  And it was dark; as black as the night outside, making Irvine feel detached and separated from his body.  He could hardly see anything, but the dim light that filtered in from outside her room was enough to let his eyes adjust to the darkness, and he knew that he was not alone.

"Selphie?"

Only silence answered him, but he knew that she was here.  A chill ran down his spine as he thought of her sitting in the dark, perfectly quiet, watching him… He had to take a breath to keep his voice from shaking.  "Selphie, are you there?"

"What do you want?"

If a shiver had run down his spine before, this time it froze at the sound of her voice.  It was absolutely nothing as it usually was; her bright, sunny tone, light and full of life, had gone cold, as hard and unforgiving as iron, with a venomous quality that reminded Irvine of a coiled viper.  His heart plummeted as he came to full realization of the inevitable; his little butterfly had fallen to the shadow.  Even in the darkness, he forced a very weak smile, trying to quell his fears as much as possible.  "I…I came to see how you were doing, you haven't been out of your room for almost two days now.  Everyone's worried about you.  What have you been doing in here?"

"Waiting."

This was getting worse and worse by the minute.  "Waiting…for what?"

"For him to come."  There was movement on the other side of the room, coming from the direction her bed was on; at least he knew where she was, but he stood his ground, unmoving, unwilling to let himself give into his fear.  This was Selphie he was talking to right now, not some demonic monster… But for some reason, he had a very hard time convincing himself of that.  

"For…who to come, Sefie?"

She laughed, a cold and merciless chuckle that could have rivaled Ultimacia.  "For the Dark One, of course.  He who has the world in his very bidding, in his grasp…He who rules and night, and everything in it."  He had been so caught up in her words that he hardly noticed when she reached up to take his collar in her hands, nearly making him jump in surprise as she pulled him closer to her.  "When the true night falls, the one who offers eternal sleep…doesn't that sound nice?"

Irvine refused to break contact with her eyes, as hard as that was.  Up until a few seconds ago, he knew that he could loose himself forever in those vibrant green orbs and nothing else in the world would matter, but now he wanted nothing more than to look away.  Whatever this… this thing was that had his cornered…was not Selphie.  "Sure…sounds great…"  He complied, not wanting to turn this into something that he could not get out of.  _Keep your cool cowboy… for her sake, and for your own…_  He fought to control his rapidly accelerating pulse as he moved his fingers slowly downward to finger the small vile in his pocket, a special item that he had brought with him as an absolute last resort.  "But I need to ask you something, first.  If you know who this… Dark One is… then do you know what happened to the other SeeD cadets?  If so, then you have to tell me…"

"Taken…"  Selphie laughed again in that same chilling manner.  "Already taken, the lucky bastards… and it will not be long before it is our turn as well…"  By now she had moved so close to him that he could feel her breath, warm and caressing on his face, and Irvine wanted nothing more than to pull away.  

"But where?"  He softly demanded, moving to place his hands on Selphie's slender shoulders and pushed her away from him, which turned out to be more difficult than he thought.  "Can you tell me where they went?"  In the darkness, Irvine could see the small girl grin, which looked more like a wolf baring its fangs before the kill, before she lunged forward and pressed her lips hard against his.  This was something that Irvine was hardly expected, and had the situation been any different there would have been no complaints, but this was all wrong.  Before he could respond, Selphie had managed to turn them so they were facing opposite ways than they had started from, and shoved him backwards with surprising strength, causing the cowboy to trip over his own long legs and crash against the hard frame of her bed.  He had very little time to recover from his initial shock as he felt Selphie move on top of him, pinning him down even more effectively and once again kissing him in that same forceful manner, her tongue plunging deep into his mouth as her teeth and lips were pressed against him so hard that it hurt.

"Do you want this?"  She whispered huskily against his mouth, just pulling back barely to allow the words to take form.

"No."  Irvine gasped, finally regaining control of his body enough to take her shoulders and push her back.  "No, it's not what I want.  What I do want to do is talk to Selphie."  Still maintaining a firm grip on her shoulders, he pushed himself so he was not sitting on his knees and effectively looming over her.  "Selphie, I know you're in there!  Talk to me, please!"

Even through the possession of the shadow, Selphie had still maintained her seemingly playful, innocent attitude, although now it was about as harmless as playing with a pack of Torama cubs in their own den.  But what had remained of that disappeared within the space of a heartbeat, and was replaced by the snarling face of some wild beast.  With an inhuman cry, Selphie lunged at him, one hand outstretched like a curved talon of a wild animal.  The sudden movement broke Irvine's stronghold on her, and he did not have enough time to react as searing pain flamed along the side of his face as Selphie's untrimmed fingernails raked across his left cheek before she slammed at him at almost full force.  Collecting his sense in a hurry, Irvine took hold of her wrists and turned her around, pinning her against him with both arms trapped effectively between their bodies, with one of his arms firmly holding her in place while the other searched for the vile he had brought with him.  Selphie writhed and howled like some wounded beast, and Irvine did his damned hardest to block out the horrible sound as he found what he was looking for.  Popping the cork of the Sleeping Powered off with his thumb, he took a breath and poured its entire contents over the struggling girl's head while at the same time avoiding getting any on himself.

The powder wafted over Selphie, and she coughed, shuddered, and went limp in Irvine's arms.

For several long moments, Irvine remained motionless, cradling Selphie's sleeping form against him, letting the events of what just occurred catch up with him, totally oblivious to the blood that was dripping down his face, staining the carpets below him.

*  *  *

"It's so bloody cold out here!"

"If you don't like it, then you can go.  I just thought that the infamous Sorceress' Knight would have a little more tolerance to the chill."

"This is a little more than a 'chill', Quisty.  I call it hell frozen over."

"Oh…why so bitter, Seifer?"

"I'm only out here because you wanted the company.  What ever happened to barricading ourselves in the bridge?"

The blonde woman shrugged, absently fingering the golden coils of Save the Queen between her long, slender fingers.  "I needed the fresh air; it was getting stuffy up there.  Besides, I needed to think."

Four years ago, never, not in a million years, would Quistis had even considered that she would be in the training center's fabled Secret Area, talking to, much less _dating_ Seifer Almasy.  If someone had told her that then, she probably would have laughed and considered it to be one very clever, if not very, very odd, joke.  And yet, here she was, standing next to the former Sorceress' Knight, the man she could swear up and down that she would be spending the rest of her life with.  And it idea made her happy, through and through, to an extent that she had never thought possible.  She recalled briefly the time she had come here with Squall, just hours after her teacher license had been revoked.  The memory of her wishful thinking flashed through her mind, hoping that maybe the events of that night had been a little different, only to receive the cold shoulder on the other end.  It had bothered her for a while, but now she could not be more pleased that the "maybe" had never occurred…

"What did you need to think about?"

Seifer's sudden question jarred her back to reality.  Or what was left of it, anyway.  "About a lot of things.  But mostly…what do you think those things were that were flying overhead last night?  They weren't like any monster that I've ever seen before."

Seifer turned so his back was leaning against the railing, the light of the long lantern that had brought with them highlighting the features of his handsome face.  "Concentrated darkness.  True evil."

The tone of his voice sent a shiver crawling down Quistis' spine as she turned to stare disbelieving at her lover.  "What do you mean?"

"The blonde man shook his head slowly.  "I saw a lot of weird stuff when I was in the Sorceress' servitude, Quistis."  _Not control_, she noted to herself.  _Servitude.  Even through all the events that took place, he still prides himself in being the Sorceress' Knight._  "And even though they did some pretty messed-up shit, they were still human.  When people say that no one is one-hundred-percent evil, they're speaking the truth.  Even people like Ultimacia was fighting for what she thought was right; she had her passions, her sadness, her fears.  Human emotions.  But those things we saw last night….those were all the negative emotions a person can feel in their life time all rolled up and put into the form of flying snakes."  He shrugged.  "Sounds absurd, I know, but it's the best damn excuse I can think of."

For a moment, Quistis could only stare at him, turning the words over in her mind.  Crazy, yes, but oddly logical.  Creatures that became present at the sight of hatred, violence, and, given the chance, death; it almost made perfect sense.

For several long moments, silence hung thickly between the couple.  Seifer had his head bowed at an angle so his eyes were clocked in shadow where the light of their lantern could not reach.  Finally, he spoke in a voice that held none of its usual confidence.  "Quistis…can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"What was it that you saw in me?"

Quistis was simultaneously surprised and touched by his unexpected question.  It was very rare when Seifer let down his guard of the strong, independent man who was in complete control of his life, as if he was always assuming that there was someone watching over his shoulder, waiting for him to slip up so they could tell the rest of the world.  The only time when he was somewhat relaxed was when they were alone, but even then the times were few and far between.  But right now, it seemed as if the events of the pass few days were catching up to him, and he sounded very much like a small and frightened boy.  Her blue eyes softened as she gave her answer.  "I really wasn't sure, at first.  There was just something that…drew me towards you, but it took me years to figure out.  And it bothered me too…because there were times that I just really wanted to strangle you.  And don't deny that you felt the same way."  She added quickly before he could get a word in.  "We were always butting heads so much that there were times that I truly thought that you were the person I could stand less in this life.  But, after a while…I realized that what I was really feeling the opposite of what I thought I was.  Maybe it was because you were the first person, almost ever, to critique my ways, to not either fawn all over me or treat me with unnecessary amounts of respect because of how I lived my life.  There are some people here who truly are afraid to treat me like a real person, but you did so without a second thought.  And that turned out to be really…really saying something about you.  Seifer…"  She reached over and gently took his gloved hand in one of her own.  "Thank you…I never got a chance to tell you that before.  It means more to me than anyone else could know."

Seifer was looking back up now, and a small smile had appeared on his face as he drew Quistis towards him to kiss her softly.  Compared to the cold that surrounded him, her lips felt as warm and as comforting as a gentle flame, giving him a light that only he could detect.  When they finally broke, Quistis gave him a smile of her own and a little wink.  "Besides, I kind of liked the challenge that you gave me in the process."

Seifer shrugged, immediately gaining back that air of confidence.  "Hey, what can I say, I'm an all-in-one kind of guy."

Quistis laughed at this, for the first time in what felt like years.  "That you are."  She pulled his head back down for another kiss, and relished in the feeling of forgetting all their worried for those few precious seconds.

*  *  *

Fighting his rapidly blurring vision, Zell made his way almost shakily towards the Balamb Garden training center, surprisingly making his way easily through the darkness; much more than the last few days had allowed.  Had he been a little more focused, maybe he would have found it a little disturbing that he could see so well in the darkness of the first floor hallways, whose lights were no more luminous than those of a firefly.  But he was more at tentative on his own distaste from being outside of the safety of the third floor control room, heading down to the treacherous training center to retrieve two of their own.  Why Quistis and Seifer suddenly decided to go down to the secret area of the training center in the middle of the night was beyond him, but Squall wanted to keep everyone within his site.  Irvine had gone to retrieve Selphie over and hour ago, but there had been no word back from either of them as of yet.  

The already quiet training center was even more silent that normal, sending a chill up Zell's spine as he made his way through the heavy medal doors and into the overgrown paddock.  The only sound that could be heard was that of running water, but even then it was thinner than normal, as most of it was frozen over.  Other than that, the usual noises of Grat rustling in the undergrowth, or the hungry rumbling growl of a T-Rexaur lying in wait, were completely absent.  The most prominent sounds were Zell's own heartbeat thundering in his ears and the incessant buzzing resonating in his head that had been steadily growing the last few days.  But he shook it off, only wanting to collect Seifer and Quistis and get the hell out of there as fast as possible.

The imposing cold and darkness had taken its toll on the foliage of the training center; most of the greenery was brown, rotting and limp, and the scent of earthen decay filled his nostrils.  It looked so much different than its usual lush, green scenery, but Zell was nonetheless able to find his way to the Secret Area.  He had been here many times before on several occasions, each one of them special…but why?  And with who…?  Why did his mind suddenly feel so…empty?

The static in his head intensified from a dim hum to a shrilling wail, making the young martial artist stumble and clutch at his eye.  Temporarily he forgot where he was, forgot who he was, but it only lasted for the space of a few seconds before he regained control of himself.  He had no idea what the heck just happened, but it had been the single most frightening experience of his life.  It felt as if he had no control over his body…

In fact, it felt as if something had control of his entire being entirely.

"Zell?  Are you alright?"  In his moment of confusion, he was unaware that he had already made it to the Secret Area.  Both Quistis and Seifer, their faces illuminated dimly by the single lantern they had brought with them, were giving him peculiar looks, questioning his behavior.  He did not give their expressions a second thought – a sudden change in a person's attitude was never a good sign – but even he knew that he was not feeling like himself.  Straightening a bit, Zell rubbed at his eye with the palm of his hand and lied, "Yeah, I'm good.  The sudden light just caught me off-guard, I guess.  Squall wants you both back at the bridge, pronto.  It really freaked him out when you two just disappeared like that."

"Guess we can't leave Mr. Commander hanging, then."  Seifer said flatly, gathering up his Hyperion blade.  It was also then that Zell noticed that Quistis was clutching Save the Queen in a near death grip, but it was to be expected.  Now that the Guardian Forces were gone, and items were running low, brute force was their only real means in which they could defend themselves.  "Lead the way, Chicken-Wuss."

Had it been any other time, Zell might have shot a warning look over his shoulder at the bigger blonde man before shrugging off the name entirely.  Over the course of the last few years since Seifer and the posse had been allowed back into Balamb Garden and the tensions began to ease, the former knight still insisted on calling Zell the nick-name he had been dubbed back on their mission to Dollet.  Of course, Zell had thrown a huge fuss over it, but seeing as Seifer was relentless and not going to stop any time soon, he eventually (and somewhat surprisingly) stopped fighting it.  Maybe it was a sign of all their impending maturity, or maybe it was due to the fact that someone close to him (but who the hell was it?!) had said it was cute.  But whatever the reason, it did not matter now.  He only wanted to get out of there.

Nursing his knuckles as they left the Secret Area, Zell walked ahead of the couple at a quicker pace than what was even normal for him.  There was something tingling up his spine, something that made him want to keep looking over his shoulder for something that was not there.  But the only problem that there _was_ something there, something just out of eye reach, watching, waiting, ready to pounce…

How he knew that the ambush came from behind, he would never know…

"Look out!"  Zell shouted suddenly, making Seifer and Quistis jump more from the surprise of his outburst more than the realization that something else was happening.  But they were reminded soon enough as a T-Rexaur came crashing through the brown foliage, jaws snapping and skin hanging loosely from its bones.  With a cry of surprise, the group was just barely able to dodge its razor-sharp teeth.

"Oh, Hyne!"  Quistis swore as she picked herself up from where she had fallen.  "It must have been weeks since any of these things were fed!  Best to just run!"  There was no arguing there; a T-Rexaur was dangerous by itself, but when they were starving…

Something long and gold lashed over them and struck the monster in the eye, following closely by an arching slash of Seifer's Hyperion, making it howl and recoil.  It might be more dangerous, but it was a lot weaker.  The simultaneous attacks were enough to drive the beast back, giving two SeeDs enough time to escape from its closer range attacks.  Hunger was driving it hard, though; the T-Rexaur recovered quickly and charged, gaining speed of them quickly.

"Keep running!"  Zell shouted at his companions, falling back to attack the T-Rexaur so they had a better chance to escape.  He fumbled around in his pocket for the item he had brought with him; a Flare Stone, the strongest item he could find in case something like this happened.  He drew it out; a tiny marble glowing red-hot with its sealed magic, tiny golden sparks shooting out from its glassy surface.  Daring the risk to stop, Zell drew his arm back, ready to throw the stone at the monster when the T-Rexaur halted itself, staring at Zell through its acid-green orbs.  For a few seconds, they only stared at each other… The sudden silence of the noise made Quistis and Seifer stop, wanting to see what the sudden silence was…

Then the T-Rexaur bowed low, as if it were physically shrinking - and was that a trace of fear that Quistis saw in its eyes? – before it turned tail and ran back into the dense foliage of the training center, howling like a frightened dog.  They could only stare after it for a few moments, wondering if they had seen what they had saw.  Never, not in all of their years of experience, had a T-Rexaur been the one running from a potential meal.

Their concentration was broken when Zell suddenly collapsed, holding his head in his hands.

"Zell!"  Quistis exclaimed, running over to their fallen friend.  "Are you alright?"

_No…_ Zell thought.  _I'm not…_  Cold fear surged through him.  Who was it he was talking to?  He knew her for years, had been childhood friends with her… they had encountered countless perils together…but her name would not come to mind!  "Fine."  He said, perhaps a little more harshly than he had intended to, making an effort to stand up.  "I think it just hit me, is all."

"I think I might have something…"  Seifer said, sticking the point of his Gunblade into the ground where it remained erect.  "It's only a potion, but it should hold you over…"  Quistis had returned to him, helping him look for it.

Zell did not say anything, but his hand crept back up to clutch at his eye, his own monologue trying to drain out the voices that were rising in his head, but it becoming more and more difficult to drain them out…  until finally, exhausted from days of unrest, he gave up, and the constant hum that was in his mind suddenly formed into clear meaning that were commanding him…telling him to do something horrible…

And yet, he had no objections.

Opening one blue eye again, the first thing that he saw was the Hyperion sticking up from the ground.  And, without thinking twice, he began to walk over to it, one hand outstretched…

"There it is."  Quistis said, looking over the bottle in her hand.  "Zell, this should…  _Zell!  What are you doing?!"_  Seifer, who was taken by surprise at Quistis' sudden outburst, did not even have time to turn around as the blade of his own Hyperion was brought down across his back, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Immediately after the attack, Zell dropped the blade and made a mad dash back towards the direction of the Secret Area.  Quistis was torn between two sides; to chase after him or to tend to Seifer.  Not wanting to risk loosing someone so important to her, she knelt down next to the fallen Knight and inspected his wound.  Had Zell had any idea how to use a Gunblade, it would have been a lot worse, but the wound was shallow, although it was still bleeding sluggishly.  "Seifer!"  Quistis breathed a sigh of relief to see that he was still conscious.  "Seifer!  Are you alright?"

"Don't worry…about me!"  Seifer hissed through clenched teeth.  "I'm…fine!  Follow…follow him!"

Quistis was slightly taken aback by Seifer's command, but did not argue as she picked herself up and took off at a dead run back to the Secret Area.  By the time she got there, Zell was already inside, and, to Quistis' horror, perched on the ledge of the balcony.  

"Zell!"

But it was to late.  Without a word, Zell leaped from the railing, and by the time Quistis was over to see if he was hurt, he was completely gone.

*  *  *

"Great Hyne!"  Squall shouted, leaping to his feet as Quistis and Seifer finally reemerged, Seifer leaning heavily on Quistis' shoulder, blood staining the back of his trench coat.  "What in the bloody hell happened?"

"Zell is what happened."  Seifer said, his teeth still gritted tightly together.  "Attacked me with my own Hyperion."

"Zell…"  Rinoa whispered in shock.  "So he's…he's…"

"Gone."  Quistis said sadly, helping Seifer sit down in a chair.  Dr. Kadowaki rushed over with a Hi-potion, which she dumped into Seifer's mouth before the blonde man had a chance to protest.  If things had not been so serious, it would have almost been funny; almost everyone knew how the doctor liked to get her two cents in when dealing with Seifer Almasy.  "Any word from Irvine and Selphie?"

"We got a call from Irvine about an hour ago."  Rinoa said.  "It's not good.  He said Selphie started talking about the arrival of someone called 'The Dark One' just before she attacked him.  He had to put her out with a Sleeping Powder, and we haven't heard anything since.  Maybe one of us should go check on them?"

"No."  Squall said firmly, his voice harder than it had been in days.  "No one else is going out there alone.  It obvious now that we can't stay here; whatever taint has stained this place, its finally getting to us.  We have to leave Garden altogether, find anyone else who may still be unaffected.  Maybe the talk of this so called 'Dark One' will give us a lead to what's really going on."

"But where?"  Quistis asked, kneeling next to Seifer, who was now looking a little less pale, the blood finally stopping its flow.  "Everywhere else is probably under the same darkness, and it's probably not the best idea to go checking every city to look for survivors.  We may never learn anything that way."

Squall frowned, taking the instructor's words into account.  "You're right.  So we go somewhere where there aren't any cities; a place where people can live but not in huge groups.  It's our best chance.  We're going to Centra."

------

**To Be Continued…**

------


	6. When True Night Falls

**Chapter Six**

**When True Night Falls**

****

"First thing's first!"  Squall shouted over his shoulder as they ran through the abandoned halls of Balamb Garden.  "We need to get Irvine, and then we make a break for Ragnarok!  There's no excuse to why it should not be working!  It was built for deep-space flying, and so there's no reason why the cold and darkness should affect it!"

"Squall, we have no idea what's out there!" Quistis shouted back, further behind as she was helping Seifer maintain his balance as they ran.  "If they're this bad in the Garden, then think of what it has to be like outside, where there has been no light for the last several days!  We'll be swamped!"

"We're kind of running out of time, Quistis."  Squall shot back, disregarding that she was merely maintaining her traditional cautionary role.  "And we're running out of options.  We can either finally do something about this thing, or we can just wait here and wait for it to take us.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I would rather not settle for the latter."

"I was able to scratch up some Aura and Holy Stones from the supply closet."  Rinoa panted next to him.  "I think they're a little old, but still good enough to buy us some time to get to the Ragnarok.  If those are creatures of shadow, then any sort of light should drive them back, right?"

"I hope so." Squall said in a lowered voice so only she could hear.  "If not, then we might not make it some here to the ship."  Rinoa did not respond back, but Squall could see her swallow hard from out of the corner of his eye.

They rounded the corner quickly, turning into the hallway that lead to the SeeD cadet's apartments, which was uncharacteristically cold and quiet.  But through the darkness, Squall caught sight of something crumpled on the ground, slumped against the wall opposite of one open door.  When they drew closer, Squall recognized the long disheveled hair and tan-colored duster that signified the "something" as Irvine.

The cowboy appeared to be unconscious, and half of his was face was covered in something dark that was not shadow.  Squall knelt beside him, gesturing for Dr. Kadowaki to bring their sole lantern forward so he could get a better look at their downed companion, and was shocked to see that Irvine's face was bloody.

"Irvine."  Squall shook his friend's shoulder; Irvine groaned.  Squall shook him harder, making his voice sterner as he spoke louder.  "Irvine!"  This time the violet eyes fluttered open, unfocused and disoriented.  "What happened?"

Irvine's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright as he suddenly remembered everything that had happened to him before he was knocked out cold.  "Where's Selphie?"

"Gone, it seems."  Rinoa reported, stepping out of the room.  It was then that Squall noticed that the door to Selphie's dorm room had been knocked clear out of the wall, the electronics that operated it sparking and smoking, and he got the immediate impression that it had been the force of Irvine's body slamming into it that had done the trick.  The idea of tiny, carefree Selphie being capable to do something of that magnitude sent a shiver down his spine.  "Squall, we have to get going."

Squall nodded as he worked on throwing Irvine's arm around his shoulder and hauling the cowboy to his feet.  "Why?" Irvine hissed through gritted teeth.  It was no surprise that he was sore after hitting the door with that much force.  "What's going on?"

"We have to get to the Ragnarok.  I can explain on the way."

The hallways of Balamb Garden became colder than death itself as they came to the entrance, and except for the pool of light created by their lantern, they were completely surrounded by darkness, like a huge, unending void stretched around them.  Squall knew that the Ragnarok had been parked towards the east side of Garden, but they would never find it in this damned blackness, especially with two injured men in tow.  "Rin."  Squall spoke her nickname once, but she understood his meaning without having to question it.  Out of the corner of his eye, Squall saw her pull a red, glowing Stone from her pocket, haul back and throw it into the darkness.

Brilliant red and gold light exploded in the black gloom, so bright and radiant that it felt as if they were suddenly staring into the sun, making them throw their hands before their eyes as the light felt to be piercing through their skulls.  Even through the blinding light of the Flare Stone, Squall could see masses of hundred of shadowy creatures recoiling from the glare, looking and moving very much like giant, monstrous cockroaches.  They were unlike any creatures that they had even seen before, and were as cold and dark as the night around them.  These were unnatural creatures, spawns of the darkest nightmare that had no place in their world; whatever they were, they were hardly creatures of Hyne.

"How long will those spells last?" Seifer asked.  

"Only for a few moments, so let's move."  Quickly but carefully, they struck close within their one safe haven in the dark and dangerous world as they steps beyond the Garden's front steps.  Whenever they reached the end of the pool of light, where the creatures started to claw at their boots from the darkness, Rinoa would throw another Stone further out than before, extending their path a bit more each time.  The effect of the Stones was doing a good job at keeping the monsters at bay, but it was still not enough.  They were moving too slowly, and the supply of their only mean of defense was almost exhausted.  

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the deep red haul of the Ragnarok looming overhead reflected back the light of the last Flare Stone, giving them all a temporary feeling of relief.  Still, they were so close, and yet still so far away.  They had one Stone left; a Holy Stone with enough power to banish even the darkest demons, but once it was gone, then they would be completely at their mercy.  "Once the Stone is thrown," Squall kept his voice very low, as if fearing that the creatures that surrounded them were listening in.  "we make a break for the cargo bay and not look back, no matter what.  Irvine, Seifer, do you think that you can make it?"

"Don't worry about us."  Seifer said, and Irvine nodded curtly.  "Everyone just worry about getting themselves there.  If one of us falls behind, the others can't risk being taken down with them.  No exceptions."  Squall could see Quistis' fingers tighten their grip on his trench coat, but she did not argue.  Squall did not like the decision, either.  The thought of having to leave anyone behind angered him, but right now, he knew that they did not have much of a choice; they _had_ to get to Centra, no matter what, even if it meant making some sacrifices.  He extended his hand back to Rinoa and felt the smooth pressure of the Holy Stone being pressed into his palm.  Before she pulled her hand away, Rinoa gave his fingers an encouraging squeeze.  The realization dawned on Squall as he suddenly came to terms with the fact that Rinoa might even be the one who was left behind and his heart sank, but he knew that there was no going back.

The Holy Stone gleamed like a pearl, even in the darkness, radiating power that was already banishing the evil around it despite its tiny size.  Turning slightly so he was facing the cargo bay, Squall drew his arm back and threw the stone into the darkness as hard as he could.

White light exploded between them and the end of the Ragnarok, brighter than day, making the light of the Flare Stones seem dim by comparison.  The creatures that surrounded them screamed in agony, a thousand horrible voices chorusing through the air as they retreated back into their safe haven.  Spots flashed before Squall's eyes, but they wasted no time as the last survivors sprang forward, using the light of the Holy Stone to their full advantage as they made for the ship in a dead-out sprint.

 The power of the Holy Stone was greater than Squall had anticipated, as it kept a clear path for them all the way to the great airship.  It was when they reached the cargo bay that they encountered the problem.

"Oh, holy Hyne!" Squall cursed loudly when his eyes came to rest on the thick-inch ice that sealed the doors shut.  And things had been going so well, too. Gritting his teeth, Squall dug his fingers into the latches of the massive doors, the cold biting through his thick leather gloves almost immediately, but they were still shut tight.  The others followed his example, putting all their strength into trying to free the doors, but no amount of human power was going to open those doors in the amount of time that they had.  And to make matters worse, the light of the Stone was failing.  Squall wished more than ever that they were still Junctioned to their GFs; one Firaga spell would take care of the ice with no problem.  They should have saved a Flare Stone, which would have been more than effective, along with taking out a good chunk of the doors with it; Selphie would not have been pleased if they did that.

"Squall, what do we do?" Rinoa's voice was filled with dismay as black once again replaced white, and the agonized cries of the creatures became furious howls as they began to close in on the party as close as they dared to.

"Stand back!"  Squall shouted, and everyone backed up quickly as Squall drew Lionheart from its sheath, the blue blade cutting through the night.  Swinging the Gunblade over his head, Squall drove the point of the sword in between the medal doors.  Blue sparks exploded upon contact, and the ice evaporated immediately upon contact as the blade sliced neatly down the doors.  When the last of the ice had been melted away, Seifer and Irvine seized the latches and pulled, and the doors swung wide open just as the spell was extinguished, and they were once again plunged into darkness.  Tripping and stumbling over each other, they scrambled into the Ragnarok as the sounds of the enraged demons rapidly rushed up to meet them.  Squall picked himself up and moved to slam the cargo doors closed again before the creatures had a chance to reach them.  The doors shut with a loud bang, and they were once again, for the time being, safe.

Breathing deeply, Squall moved along the inside haul of the ship, being careful as in not stepping on anybody, but not daring to remove his hands from the wall even for even a second.  "Everyone, wait here.  I'm going to try to find the bridge."  He just hoped that he knew the Ragnarok well enough to find it with little trouble, but yet again he was finding himself underestimating how hard it was to maneuver well in the dark.  He was fortunate enough that somehow, the ship had switched over to emergency power, looking very much as it did when he and Rinoa had first found it, so all the doors stood open, and the pale glow of the emergency lights beyond the cargo bay made the rooms seem as bright as if they had been illuminated with flood lamps.  

On the other side of another door was a sudden burst of red light; a sign illuminating the relieving words "Emergency Use Only" over a glass case set into the wall.  Squall broke out the glass with his elbow, and examined its contents while carefully avoiding the last remains of broken shards, hoping to find something worth using.  The pickings were slim, as the emergency supplies were standard, but the entire thing did not go to waste.  After pushing aside the fire extinguisher, Squall withdrew the First Aid kit and set it at his feet; they would need it to take care of that nasty gash on Irvine's face.  There were a few long, thin cylinders inside that Squall recognized as emergency flares, and he pocketed those quickly.  A small pistol was also among the contents, but Squall just ignored it.  It would be of no use here.  Finally, he found what he was looking for: a flashlight.  Relief flooded him as he switched it on, the surprisingly bright beam cutting through the darkness like a super-heated knife.

Now that he had better means to see by, Squall quickly found the elevator that lead up to the command deck.  Most likely the elevator was not working, so the bypassed it completely and scaled the emergency ladder quickly.

Almost all the primary lights were off, except for a single red button flashing towards the middle of the massive flight panel.  Squall ran over to it and red a small plate under it: "Main Power Grid", and the button was in the "off" position.  Squall nearly rolled his eyes at it.  Ragnarok was one of the most advanced vehicles for air and space travel, but switching on the power was as easy as flicking a kitchen light switch.  He had always thought that it would have been more complicated.  There was a keyhole off set from the light, and he withdrew the master key ring from his pocket, quickly finding one that read, ironically, "Master Power Grid".  He inserted the key into the keyhole and turned.  There was a click, the telltale hum of a generator warming up, and in a blinding flicker that made him blink several times, the main power kicked in, illuminating the ship in light that he had not seen in days.

_That was the easy part.  Now all we have to worry about is getting it off the ground_.

He hoped that the lights turning on was a signal for the others to come up to the bridge, as Squall really could not afford to time to go back and get them.  Right now they needed to get the hell out of here and to Centra as quickly as their trusted ship would get them there.  The sounds of running footsteps began to drift to him from the decks below, and he worked hurriedly and making the preparations needed to take off, turning on switches and making the appropriate dial adjustments as the others appeared from the elevator that led up to the bridge.  

"We may be out of trouble for right now, but we're still not completely out of the woods."  Seifer said as Quistis helped him to sit down, leaning against the wall.  "Our two best pilots are gone.  Are you certain that we can get to Centra in one piece?"

"What, you don't honestly believe that Selphie and Zell were the only ones who could fly this, do you?"  Quistis asked, making her way up to the main flight panel and all but pushing Squall out of the chair.  "Out of the way, Leonhart, you're only doing more damage than good."  With a few flicks of her wrists and her fingers dancing like mad, the main engines of Ragnarok came to life with a massive roar, sending up billows of steam and it incinerated the last remaining ice that may have still been clinging to it, and the whole ship gave a violent shudder as it lifted from the ground, rising quickly into the night air.  "We're lucky that that the navigational system still works," Quistis reported, flipping a few more switches and twisting another dial.  "Or we'd never find our way there."

"How long until we reach Centra?"  Dr. Kadowaki asked, who was finally proceeding in cleaning the mess of nearly frozen blood off of Irvine's face.  "Ah, despite all the blood, it's really not that bad, hardly more than a scratch.  It won't even scar."

"Oh, darn." Irvine said dryly.  "So much for my admission into the Scars-for-Men club."

"About two hours, if we fly fast."  Quistis said, ignoring Irvine's failed attempt at humor.  "The only thing is, I'm not sure if the boosters would be handle it.  We just have enough fuel to get to Matron's, so we can't afford to burn it quickly."

They did not speak much on the way back to the old orphanage, and nervous anticipation hung thickly in the air.  Squall was unable to look out the window for very long.  It was as if they were falling into a gaping black hole, a place where neither time nor space existed, a place that even light could not escape.  He sank onto the floor next Rinoa, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her close, grateful for the heat of her body warming his own.  It seemed as if she was the last solid support he had left to hold onto in the world, but the intense quiet that was pressing down around him was beginning to make his ears hurt, and more than once he felt like screaming just the break the Hyne-awful silence.  Even if they were able to escape from the shadow, how long would their sanity hold out?  

It was, undoubtedly, the longest and most torturous two hours of his life.

"Is it just me," Quistis' sudden words made them all jump so badly that Squall's chest actually hurt.  "Or is it getting lighter outside?"  Picking himself up off the ground and trying to make his pulse slow to a normal rate, Squall looked out of the cockpit window and had to blink a few times to make sure he was seeing right.  The sky that was stretched out before them was no longer the unending pitch-black, but rather the dark steely blue that he remembered was the color of the normal nighttime sky.  And, a few minutes later as the sky continued to steadily lighten, small pinpricks of light began to spot the sky.  Squall recognized them to be stars, and his heart gave a huge leap.  

They had made it.  They had escaped the shadow.

The Ragnorok swooped low to the rocky landscape of the Centra continent, hugging the ink-black coastline and followed it to a very familiar peninsula, and Squall felt relief flood him at the sight of the ruins of a broken orphanage, but in his eye, it was still no less than a sanctuary, and a very old home.  However, there was something else near the stone structure that none of them were counting on.  Another airship had landed near the house, smaller and slower than the Ragnorok, but still baring the crest of Esthar on the tailfin and side of the haul.  

"Who on earth could possibly be out here?"  Rinoa asked, coming up beside Squall to get a better look at the craft.

Squall took a moment to glare at the ship, a strangle lolling feeling turning in his stomach.  "I don't even have to guess."  He said dryly.

They landed the Ragnorok safely beside the other Esthar ship, just as the red fuel light began to blink, before they carefully disembarked.  The first thing that Squall noticed as they stepped beyond the cargo doors was that the air was warm; it felt like he had just stepped out from a walk-in freezer and into a steamy sauna as the warmth of the air seemed to be melting the cold out of his skin.  And the world all around him seemed to be lighter.  He could actually see the crests of the low-rising hills that surrounded them, the stone structure of the old orphanage, and the white swells of the ocean waves as they lapped at the shore.  But the most prominent feature about the whole thing was the fact that the darkness that seemed to swallow the rest of the world had not touched Centra.  There was something deeper afoot here…

"_Squall!"_

Squall barely had time to turn to see who it was that called his name before something slammed into him from a full-out run, nearly sending him sprawling to the ground, and it took him a moment to realize that the thing wrapped around him, essentially squeezing the very breath from his lungs, was none other than his father, President Laguna of Esthar.  "I'm so glad you're alright, we've been so worried!  No contact from the Garden in three weeks!  We were beginning to think that the worse had happened!"

"Nice to see you too, Laguna." Squall choked out, trying hard to push the older man away from him so he could breath again.  "…what are you doing here, anyway?"

"The city was under complete siege."  Kiros said as he approached the group of SeeDs, followed closely by Ward, whose face was dark as a storm cloud.  "At first it was the citizens, who were completely ravishing everything in sight.  We couldn't get our out police force to stop them, because they were part of the riot.  And when they disappeared – to where, we don't know – we were overrun by these…demons, is the best way I could describe them.  We tried to contact Garden, but all forms of communication's been severed, so we had no choice but to flee the city.  We're the only ones that got out."

"We went all over the world, trying to find a place to escape from whatever's been going on, but everywhere we went, it was the same thing.  Deling City, Timber, Dollet; all of them are deserted and overrun by those creatures.  We were fortunate enough that Mrs. Edea Kramer's home was the only place in the world that seemed to be untouched."

"And Ellone?  How's she?"

"With Edea, having tea.  I think it will be both a huge burden off both their shoulders to see that you're all… okay."  Squall took considerable notice in the tone of Kiros' voice as he cast a nervous glance among the remains of the group, and he knew that they could not cover up the fact that Zell and Selphie were still missing, although the rest of them were safe.

"We should get inside.  Irvine and Seifer still need to get their injuries treated."

Edea had never before looked so horrible, and Squall thought she had looked her worse when she had come out of Ultimacia's control.  Her normally orderly hair stuck out at odd angles and there were dark circles under her eyes, as black as the former sorceress' eyes, and her pale skin stood out starkly against her dark, creased dress.  At the sight of them a sort of light that had been long extinguished was re-ignited in her eyes, and long forgotten relief flooded her features, silently questioning the authenticity of the six people that stood before her.  She then stood up so suddenly that she knocked over her chair, rushing over to embrace all five young adults at once.  Squall winced as his skull knocked against Seifer's, but was nonetheless to be back in her maternal embrace.

"Oh, my children," Edea breathed exhaustedly, kissing their cheeks and foreheads between phrases.  "My children, I'm so glad you're all safe!  We were beginning to fear for the worse!"

"We're just happy to see you're safe, Matron." Quistis said, hugging Edea and Cid simultaneously.  "We tried to contact you in every way possible, but nothing would go through!"

"We've been completely stranded since the beginning of his whole mess, as President Laguna has been describing it to us."  Cid informed them.  "But, for some reason, this darkness and the illness hasn't touched the Centra continent; at least not the orphanage, to say the least.  Why we have been spared, we do not know."  Cid glanced back and forth at the remainder of the group, and was no doubt taking note of their reduced numbers.  "Where are Zell and Selphie?"

Quistis shifted uneasily on her feet, and Irvine cast his eyes downward, biting his bottom lip to hold back his emotions.

"…It's best if we all sat down so we can explain."  Squall said slowly, trying to reword their experiences to make it seem as lease horrible as possible.  "It's a long story."

They all gathered around the old, worn and yet well-known oak table in the kitchen (after a round of hugs from Ellone), and each of them were served a cup of strong tea before Squall began to speak.  Squall thought that he tasted a hint of some spirit within the dark liquid, and he took note of how Rinoa clutched at her cup with both hands, as if trying to absorb the heat of the beverage into her own body.  The kitchen table, which had to be older than the orphanage was, had always been the center of the household in their childhood, used always for all their meals, the arts and crafts that Edea supplied them with on rainy days, and for the few "family meetings" that they had to attend before they were all split up.  The whole story was told in an almost monotone sort of voice, starting from their last trip to Esthar and going to their current standing.  Everyone listened in intently, as if there was something they had missed along the way, as Dr. Kadowaki worked efficiently in wrapping Seifer's torso in medical gauze to prevent infection and thoroughly cleaning the claw marks across Irvine's face.

When the story was finished, silence blanketed the room, with only the sounds of the ocean beyond to be heard.  There were a million questions that Squall wanted to ask, but there was only one that swam clearly through his mind that he had wanted an answer to for a very long time.  "Matron… we read in some of the old library documents that after every Sorceress scare, there was some sort of counter-cold bug that seemed to effect the entire world, and after each one, the illness and its symptoms became increasingly worse.  Do you have any idea what that could mean?"

Edea only continued to stare at the dark tabletop, where her eyes had been during the entire story, and finally, shook her head.  Squall felt his heart plummet.  "No… I - I am sorry, Squall, but I've never even heard of anything like this before."

"…it's not your fault, Matron.  I didn't expect you to know what this was about.  I don't think anyone knows…"

"What was that thing about what Selphie said?"  Kiros asked thoughtfully, his arms crossed before him.  "Something about 'The Dark One'?"

"That's right!" Laguna said.  "Why don't we go looking for that guy, or just wait until he shows up?  I mean, if we get the jump on him and get him before he can get us, then that'll put a stop to all this insanity, right?"

"I think that by the time this 'Dark One' guy shows up, it'll be too late." Squall said flatly, before getting up to leave the table entirely.  For a few moments after, no one spoke, until at least Rinoa got up and followed her fiancé out the door.

Laguna sighed, and put his head down on the table.  "I just can't seem to say anything right, can I?"

Kiros and Ward both shook their heads.

Squall stood up on one of the low-rising hills before the ocean, head tilted back as he enjoyed the warm breeze playing through his unruly hair.  _Might as well enjoy this while you can, Leonhart.  You might not get another chance._

The sudden sensation of an arm looping through his own made him look back down, and he almost smiled at the sight of Rinoa leaning against him.  "What now, Squall?  We made it this far, but where do we go from here?"

"I'm…not sure, Rin."  Squall answered quietly, looking back out towards the western shore.  Something moved out of the corner of his eye, and even in the weak moonlight, he recognized the tall, lanky form as Irvine, walking away from the house.  Squall was about to go after him, to call him back, but Rinoa placed a slender hand on his chest to keep him from going any further.

"Let him go, Squall.  He's thinking about Selphie.  Besides, we're safe here.  He'll be alright." Despite his own best instincts, Squall nodded and looked back up at the sky, taking note of the thin sliver of the moon that hung in the sky, appearing to be the brightest object in the sky.  It was so strange to see the moon again…  His past astronomy classes came back to mind, and he pinpointed the phase at the waning crescent… one more night, and there would be no moon, and that brilliant silver luminescence would be gone…

The notion hit him like a lightning bolt.

New moon.  And when the new moon was out, there would be no light…

"Rin.  I know what it means.  I know what it was Selphie was saying!"

"What?" Rinoa asked, a look of urgency on her face.

"'When true night falls…' Rinoa, she was talking about the new moon!  Tomorrow night, when the shadow of the planet covers the moon, there will be no more natural light!  We only have until tomorrow night to stop this thing!"

"When true night falls… Squall, the new moon sets at six o'clock tomorrow night.  We only have a few hours to figure this out!"

Squall cursed under his breath.  Only a few hours…that was hardly enough time, and he didn't even know _where_ to start looking…

"Hey, maybe I'm like, seeing double…" The sound of Irvine's voice behind him pulled him temporarily out of the turmoil.  "but last time I checked, we only had _one_ moon, right?"  Blinking in puzzlement, Squall cast his glance up to the spot where Irvine was looking, and blanked in shock at an exact duplicate of the waning moon hanging opposite of where it was supposed to be, over the eastern horizon.

"That's it then." He said in an almost monotone voice.  "I bet you that that holds whatever answer it is we're looking for!  Come on, we have to tell the others, we don't have much time!"

"It's insane!" Quistis said in an almost indignant fashion when Squall, Rinoa and Irvine finished their story.  "We have neither the time nor the resources to get all the way up to the _moon!_"

"But it's the best chance we got!" Squall shot back shortly.  "Don't you think that _two_ moons in exact opposite locations is a little _odd?_  This is the best clue we got to finding whatever it is that's causing this thing, and I'll bet my Gunblade that that imposter satellite has the answers!  Now are we going to do; are we going to sit here like gorged geezards and wait for the end, or are we going to make one last attempt to _do_ something about it?"

"This can't be any more insane than purposely causing Time Compression to fight some all-powerful psycho-bitch from the future.  I'm in."  Irvine said defiantly, cocking Exeter in a dead-serious manner.

"The hell if I wait for those things to swallow me alive."  Seifer agreed.  "Leonhart, if we're going to do this, then we have to do it _now_."

"How are we going to get up there?"  Rinoa asked.  "Ragnarok has no fuel left!"

"Don't worry about that."  Laguna said, stepping forward, all hints of his good-natured attitude completely gone from his handsome features, and he wore the unnatural seriousness like some very dark mask.  "You five just need to prepare for this.  Give us fifteen minutes, and you'll have your ship up in the air with no problems."

"You're going to need items.  There's no telling what you'll run into up there." Edea said, stepping forward.  "Follow me, we'll get you all set up as Mr. Laguna works."

There was little arguing after that; even Quistis shed her shroud of doubt and became just as determined as the others as they split into two groups.  Squall and the others followed Edea, Ellone and Dr. Kadowaki to a supply closet to be loaded up with medical equipment and the few spell Stones that Edea had in her possession while Cid, Laguna, Kiros and Ward headed outside to work with the ship.  They made short work of the supply closet, but were still able to produce a good amount of the stronger healing potions and support Stones; Hi-Potions and Phoenix Down, mostly, but they were fortunate enough to find a few X-Potions, three Elixirs, and, luckily, one Mega Phoenix and a Megalixir.  Each person was armed with a small amount of Shell and Protect Stones, if they needed to heighten their defenses, but in their past encounters, Squall was unsure of how reliable they would be.  It was not nearly enough to make Squall feel necessarily comfortable with doing what they were about to do, but it was better than going completely unprepared.  Before they returned to the Ragnarok, Edea presented them with a small box that she had been keeping in case of emergencies.  Squall opened the dusty wood lid and saw a good handful of magic spell Stones inside, and good ones at that.  There were a few Aura Stones, but mostly Flare, Holy, and even a small amount of Ultima Stones, glowing a dark and ghastly green among their brighter white magic counterparts.  Squall distributed the Stones out among his companions before handing the box back to Edea, kissing her cheek as he did so.

The question to how they were exactly going to get up to their destination was answered when they went outside.  Squall was unsure or whether he was supposed to be surprised or not when he saw Laguna and the others draining the fuel from their own transportation vehicle and into the fuel tank of the Ragnarok. "I'm not sure how far it will take you," Laguna explained as they approached the massive ship.  "But I'm pretty sure that it will be enough to get you as far as you need to go.  The last thing you need to be worrying about are the engines dying on you.  I'm not exactly sure how we can get you back, either… As soon as this thing starts to clear up, then I can arrange for a rescue squad to get up there and bring all of you…"

"Laguna… Laguna!"  Squall had to speak his name a little more firmly the second time to get the man to stop rambling.  Laguna stopped in mid sentence, turning around to stare at his son with confused eyes.  However, the established silence seemed to put the natural uneasiness between them again, and it took a few tense moments to pass before the tension began to lessen.  The chocking part of it was that it was Squall who spoke first.

"Thank you."

If Laguna had seemed dumbfounded before, now it looked as if he had been hit upside the head with a sandbag.  Even Kiros and Ward exchanged surprised looks with one another.  Finally, the dumb-struck expression faded from the President of Esthar's face, and, not wanting to ruin the moment, only smiled and nodded, and was rewarded with a small, ghostly smile from his son.

"Come on you guys, this thing isn't going to solve itself!"  Quistis' voice broke the moment and Squall could see that she and Seifer were already on the threshold of the cargo bay with Irvine not too far behind them.  With a curt nod, Squall shook Laguna's hand, embraced Edea and Ellone one last time, and followed his companions into the Ragnorok.

"Please be careful!" Ellone called after them as the last hint of Rinoa's blue duster disappeared behind the closing hull doors.

Squall and Rinoa arrived on the bridge just as Quistis began to warm up the Ragnorok's engines once more, only this time, "warming up" was hardly the term that Squall would use to describe the massive howl of the engine, making the whole craft shudder so violently that it almost knocked him off his feet.  "I'd put my seatbelts on if I were you, folks.  We're about to make the speed of sound look like a crawl."  Complying without so much as another word, Squall and Rinoa quickly sat down in the nearest chairs and buckled themselves in as securly as possible as the massive ship rose from the ground, the first set of boosters immediately kicking in.  The engines roared so loudly that Squall almost clapped his hands to his ears, but found it impossible as the afterburners flared to life, and he was pinned back into his seat to an extent that about the only thing he was capable of was breathing, and even that took some effort.

The Ragnorok circled the peninsula once, careful to avoid knocking out the orphanage of the ears of the spectators below, keeping its altitude low until it was safely over the water.  If Squall had been feeling the G's before, it was nothing compared to when all the boosters were ignited at once and the Ragnorok took off at a near vertical angel into the night sky, hurtling at breakneck speed towards the imposter moon.

Squall kept his eyes shut most of the trip – flying never bothered him, but flying at speeds where it felt like the ship was coming apart beneath his feet was another story – until Rinoa's shocked cry made his eyes snap open.  "My…my God!"  Pushing himself up in his seat, Squall paled at the sight he saw.  Were his eyes playing tricks on him, or were they…flying directly at a carbon copy of Ragnorok?  Then it dawned on him…

"That's not the sky…it's a mirror!  Whatever's behind this thing is behind that mirror!  Irvine, ready the main cannon, and everyone else, brace yourselves!  I think we're going in!"  Irvine made no reply, only peeled himself out of his chair and making his way shakily over to the weapons control panel, using all his strength to pull the lever that would power the main cannon.  Something below their feet began to whine, picking up speed and intensity as the small needle in the gauge beside the initiating lever began to move from green to yellow to red as the cannon powered up.  "Irvine!  Is the cannon almost ready?"  They were running out of time as the twin noses of the ships rushed to meet each other with alarming speed.

"Almost done!"  Irvine shouted back, having to brace himself on the panel to keep the intense G-force from knocking him over.  The intense shaking of the ship seemed to be rattling his eyes inside his skull, and was just barely able to see the needle cross into the red and a small light blink on, reading in clear red letters, "READY".  Gritting his teeth, Irvine fought the forces of gravity to pressed the red fire button.

A solid beam of white light was launched from under the nose of the Ragnorok as the shot from the cannon hit the massive mirror, and the thing shattered before their eyes into a million silver fragments.  The shards pummeled the body of the ship, no doubtedly causing some severe open wounds (Selphie was strangle him for that), but at the moment, it was not important.  They did not even pause to think that they had faced the possibility of being knocked out of the sky; they were too busy gawking silently at the monster that loomed before them.

Floating in the sky was a massive black castle, looking like a chunk of volcanic rock that had been twisted and mangled by giant hands into the shape of some sort of semi-recognizable edifice.  The whole thing, just by looking at it, radiated an ominous and evil presence just by the very sight of it that sent icy-cold tremors crawling down Squall's spine.

"Maybe you know better than I do…"  Seifer said quietly.  "But a black castle floating in thin air can't be anything good."

Squall shook his head slowly, not taking his eyes off the thing that they were approaching all the more closely every second.  "Not by my past experiences, it's not."

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To Be Continued… 

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End file.
